Not For Sale | The God Who Can't Be Ignored | Pastor Earl McClellan

so that you and I understand that how we live impacts the generation that is coming behind us that how you and I worship how you and I give how you and I forgive how you and I serve how you and I encourage how you and I lead there are some young men and some young women that are watching our lives and we need them not to be carrying out dead bodies but they need to see us lifting up the name of Jesus so our teenagers and our and our elementary kids and our babies and our

college students go past where we are we love you I'm excited about today we have been in a series for a number of weeks now called The God Who can't be ignored uh and the title for today's message if you're taking notes you can jop this down the title is not for sale not for sale this past week I went to another terrible workout class okay terrible in the best way uh terrible in the best way possible uh Haley I think you were teaching the class I went to earlier this week and I went there

with Charlie it's it's called sculpt what at class Studios right class Studios it's uh here in Dallas it might be I think there's other locations too so when you go into class Studios let me put this all right here uh hold my Bible for me real quick thank you so much sir thank you Jakob okay so uh at class Studios there's a weight rack in the back okay Frisco stay with me there's a weight rack in the back and there's a bunch of different size weights and there were uh some five Pounders and some eight

Pounders and then these 15 Pounders uh as well uh hopefully that doesn't fall okay and so I went there with uh Charlie and so there's only like two dudes in there okay so cuz it's like uh how do you describe it it's like aerobic meets like hot box okay so it's 98 Degrees in the room and you're like you know but not just those kind of jump Jacks you also be like so and you got to kind of follow you got to follow the uh the instructor you know then you know you're doing like these

like I even step touch you know so you doing step touch and I'm like wow man I'm like losing every man card I've got right now but but then then you realize no no you're not because you are being beat down uh in this class and you think it's going to be easy it's not easy at all so it's a great great workout uh but when you go in there are different weights so you got you got five Pounders eight Pounders uh 15 Pounders and if uh fellas you will know this if you're a dude

and you walk into a class and there are five pounds eight pounds and 15 pounds which ones are you grabbing thank you one dude said 20 exactly as a man you do not see five PB weights and go you you just you can't do it um now I know your manhood is not connected to how much weight you can lift yada yada yada y it's about your character yada yada yada yada I'm just saying in this moment of Pride that we were in in the class we were grab so Charlie got there a little bit

before me and I appreciate it and he grabbed the 15 Pounders and I was like yeah Charlie you know what's up and so he had them too and about halfway through the class Charlie and I look at each other and we both know we should have grabbed the five Pounders okay because you are doing rep after rep after rep after rep with the and you're it's 98 not kidding 98 Degrees in the room and we're we're like dying here but we got Pride still so I'm not putting them down if he doesn't put him down

I'm not putting them down I'm here to grow I'm here to get better G give me the heaviest weights possible okay so I'm about to read some scripture to us today that's not a five pounder it's not a eight pounder it's a 15 pounder okay I'm just letting you know the text that we're about to walk through today will feel like is 98 degrees in the room and we got 15 PB dumbbells and there might be a point we go ooh I'd rather have five Pounders now it's not that five Pounders are easy it just

might be a little bit easier but the text that we're going to look through today I think is going to push all of us forward it's going to challenge us deeply and it's going to help us grow in this understanding and our knowledge of the fear of the Lord as we've been walking through this topic the last number of weeks go with me to the book of Acts oh I need my Bible I need my Bible okay y'all can come steal these uh weights away from me too because I I don't need to keep them

there go with me to Acts chapter 5 Acts chapter 5 go with me Frisco [Music] Acts chapter 5 we're going to begin reading in verse number one now a man named ananas this is not the same ananas we talked about last week it's a different ananas okay ananas was a common Jewish name now a man named ananas together with his wife Safar also sold a piece of property with his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself but brought the rest and put it at the apostles feet then Peter said ananas

how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you reive for the land didn't it belong to you before it was sold after it was sold wasn't the money at your disposal what made you think of doing such a thing you have not lied just to human beings but to God verse number five when ananas heard this he fell down and died and great fear seized all who heard what had happened then some young men came came forward

wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him him about 3 hours later his wife came in not knowing what had happened Peter asked her tell me is this the price you and ananas got for the land yes she said that is the price Peter said to her how could you conspire to test the spirit of the Lord listen the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also at that moment she fell down at his feet and died then the young men came

in finding her dead carried her out and buried her beside her husband great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events I told you it's 15 Pounders this text right here is a lot to digest first I got to tell you this this is very very important incredibly important vital for every time you come to the Bible you have to make sure you and I are always reading the Bible through the right filter in context okay so do not ever and I wrote this down for us I'm put on the screen

do not ever interpret the Bible disconnected from the gospel and the character of God every time you come to the Bible you and I have to read it through the right filter if you don't read it through the right filter you'll misinterpret what is happening and what is being said so we have to understand the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you and I were SE separated from God that our sin kept us separated that we were bound to an eternity separated from God but God did not want that so he took the

initiative and while you and I were still sinners Christ died for us God paid the ultimate sacrifice for every single one of us saying I'm going to come to you I'm not going to force you to come to me and we see in the Beauty and the power of the cross that you and I cannot earn the favor of God we cannot earn the grace of God this is a free gift of Salvation and it was because God is so good not because we are so good you and I cannot lose sight of the fact

that he came after us and saved us this is incredibly important um uh let me talk about husbands talk to husbands and wives for a second um you guys have been in an argument spouses yeah okay yeah if you haven't you're lying right you you getting an argument getting a tip your spouse does something uh I I I did something last night I did something last night last night uh I I'm not kidding I ate a garlic clove okay ate a garlic clove one whole clove because I felt like man there's a lot of sickness

going around and I heard somebody say one time you eat garlic it like keep you protected so I was looking in the fridge you know it's 11:30 at night uh looking in the fridge and I grab one I go peel it off have you ever eaten a garlic loove just straight up it's no joke okay this thing came for me at 11:30 last night so I I chew it I swallow I'm like okay good now I'm healthy and I walk I go to the bedroom and Wick goes o did you just do a beef burp

that's what she said to me that's kind of gross I apologize I go no no I ate some garlic uh trying to trying to stay healthy she's like I don't think you can stay healthy you know eating Garlic so now we're Googling and laughing and she's not really laughing because my breath smells terrible and and it's still with me today so you don't want me praying for you today today you want to avoid five feet you want to be five feet away from me because it's coming through my pores so I just did this last

night now onique and I thankfully we have not a perfect marriage but it's a healthy marriage it is a good marriage we're honoring each other honoring God trying to encourage each other push each other forward if though if Ona and I or she was misinterpreting our relationship or she say there was a break in our relationship say she and I weren't getting along at that particular time it's easy if we're in like a little bit of a tiff time to take me eating Garlic and go I can't stand you Earl that little behavior that little

silly thing I did all of a sudden becomes oh you're trying you're saying you don't want to sleep in the bed with me tonight or you're saying you don't want to be near me or you're say you're saying you don't like me now you're saying you're just going to do what you want to do it's like whoa whoa no no I was just literally doing something stupid because I heard something you know online or you know on I don't know Tik Tok or Instagram at some point in time my my point is if the relationship

gets broken any type of behavior all of a sudden gets disted so if your relationship with God gets distorted anything you and I see God do gets distorted gets twisted it gets it gets it looks funky and and that's why if if there's a relational break with a person there's almost nothing you can do behavior-wise to fix that thing because the relationship is not mended and you can apologize and you can repent and you can do all the things that you know to do but if the relationship is not right everything has like a film

over it so this is why we have to understand the character of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ I have to have a right relationship with God so when I come come to a text like this I don't remove the truth of the Gospel I don't remove the character of God I keep it in place and now try to understand the passage of scripture through that filter y'all following me okay keep on following with me here that's that's the first context next context we got to look at what was going on here in this

passage of scripture so go back up with me to Acts chapter 4 campus Pastor readd it sure pastor probably read it up in in Frisco uh Pastor Eric read it here go with me to acts 4 verse number 36 again it says Joseph A levite from Cyprus whom the apostles called Barnabas which means son of encouragement sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet so you and I cannot read chapter 5 disconnected from chapter 4 in chapter 4 a guy named Joseph sells his land and not everybody

own land but he sells his land he takes the proceeds he brings it to the apostles feet we've talked about Barnabas before this man was such an encourager they changed the dude's name from Joseph to Barnabas son of encouragement he is a lifegiving human being you get around him he tells you I believe in you you got this God's hand is on your life he's the person everybody wants to be around son of encouragement but not only is he an encourager he's generous he has sold his land and he has brought all the money put

it at the apostles feet s symbolizing Apostles use this as you need to what they would use it to feed the poor Advance the cause of the Gospel minister to the needy do all the things that were necessary to get the message of Jesus to the world Joseph lays it down or Barnabas lays it down at the feet of the Apostles and this gives him abundant favor ananas and Safir see this and they go huh wait but he just got favor with the apostles wait do maybe ananas goes home and goes hey hey hey hey

I was at church today and and this guy he brought an offering when he brought this offering it was a re it was I mean it was an extravagant gift and he brought it and you should have seen all the pats on the back he got you should have seen how people were celebrating him you should have seen all the favor that he had in his life honey you know what we should do we should sell a piece of land and let's see if we can get that same kind of favor on our lives so

now go with me to Acts chapter 5 y'all with me y'all with me now a man named ananas together with his wife Safara also sold a piece of property with his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself now you can see connected to chapter 4 to chapter 5 that this man ananas and his wife these two individuals are not ultimately after the Applause of Heaven thereafter the Applause of people can I tell you this when the fear of the Lord I wrote it down for you I'm put it on the

screen when the fear of the Lord has captured your heart the Applause of people can't steal your call when the fear of the Lord has captured your heart when you understand who God is and the majesty and the awesomeness and the power of who God is when you and I have have submitted ourselves under his authority and Leadership when you and I have said God I'm going to align the will of my life with your word and with your way even when it's not comfortable for me even when I don't understand even when it's hard

for me even when I'm walking through trials even when I have tears streaming down on my face even when I don't understand God I trust you anyway I do not know what's going on here right now but I believe you're good I believe you're mighty I believe you're just I believe you're holy I believe there's no one like you I believe you're the creator of the heavens and the Earth so God I yield my life to you no man or woman can steal your call your confidence because your your your security is now found in

who God is and the finished work of Jesus Christ so for me and you I had to ask myself who am I more like shoot because I want to be Joseph Barnabas right that's what I want to be and we read the Bible we like to be the hero right like oh yeah but I was like Lord check my heart is there any stuff in me that's like ananas and saf now let me tell you this and maybe I'm just telling myself this but this is what I believe is true I have uh maybe heard

texts like this dealt with or maybe even heard preachers you know talk about it and and people who have really genuine a genuine desire to honor the Lord end up living with undue guilt and shame and fear because we get paralyzed into thinking oh am I a bad one oh my goodness and and listen I do think it's good for us to confront and allow the spirit of God to confront our souls that's what we're doing here today you got to have that we got to be willing to look in the word of God and

go H am I seeing myself correctly got to be willing to do that but if you are even praying the prayer God is there any wicked way in me I'm telling you you're already pointed the right direction I'm telling you right now you're already headed the way you need to be going now I will not say you're headed the way you need to be going just by coming to church CU sometimes you can come to church to check a box it's like whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever I like this girl she comes to church so

I'm gon come to church and and and listen I'm glad I'm glad you're here you're welcome everybody's welcome but it's very very possible for you to have your body here but not your heart and your mind here so so so at online at every location what I'm wanting for you is I'm wanting all of us to have a heart that is incredibly open saying Holy Spirit work in me the way you need to work in me since you took the time to be here does it make any sense to go to the gym and just

walk around it makes no sense I don't know I don't know why I see people at the gym they've been there for an hour and a half they ain't done nothing what's up what's up what's up you're not sweating you haven't lifted anything no no no I'm here well just being here you got to grab some weight you you got to open yourself up you better get on a treadmill you got to do some walking you want to engage with what God is doing just like the devil cannot force you to sin God can't force

you to grow so you and I got to be willing to go Lord all right I'm open but don't go there stay away from that part of My Heart Lord I'm not ready to deal with that one yet he goes I know you're not ready but I think you are actually actually I think you're closer than you even think you are open yourself up to me okay I got to keep on going through this text uh so so so so now now you can see that they have they have a fear of people more than

they have a fear of the Lord they're looking for the approval of people more than looking for the the the approval of heaven so the scripture tells us this when you're reading it it says they uh they kept uh kept back part of the money for themselves that's verse number two uh put put that Greek word up there for me uh um I don't know how to say this uh Chad you probably know you're get you're getting your your Masters right right now doctorate whatever you're getting Pastor Chad so uh uh so I don't know

how to say this Greek word but but it means to misappropriate so they kept back some of the money for themselves they were they misappropriated uh and when I was reading this story I was like huh it reminded me of another story in the Old Testament in Joshua chapter 7 it's a story of Ain go there with me real quick okay this too much how we feeling this too much come on let's keep on walk let's going Walk Through the Bible here we're going to grow today we're going to grow today go with me to

Joshua chapter 7 look at this Joshua chapter 7 Joshua chapter 7 in Joshua chapter 7 oh man did I start this at verse 19 what what what scripture did I put up there verse 19 is that my first one yeah yeah yeah yeah then Joshua said to aan my son give glory to the Lord the god of Israel and honor him tell me what you have done do not hide it from me let me just tell you real real quick so then I I'll tell you what happens uh the children of Israel are coming out

of bondage are coming into the promised land this is the very first city uh that they have been called to conquer which was Jericho this is when they marched around the city and then they shout it and God caused their shout he Amplified their shout and the walls came tumbling down and as the walls came tumbling down God told them this first city right here you can take none of the plunder you can have none of it everything that's of value in this city belongs to me is what God Said you cannot take anything for

yourself when they got into the city aen didn't listen he chose to take some of the stuff himself he kept back part of it he's holding on to it now this is not just uh this is not just about money this happens to be about you know resources and you know in this text but but don't don't just think money that might be where the holy spirit is leading some of y'all right now I want us thinking hearts I want us thinking our whole lives I don't want us just kind of limiting this to like

oh just my pocketbook or my wallet or my debit card that's not where I want our minds to be I want our minds to be H think thinking holistically God you you can have all of me I want you to have all of me but achan here he sees some stuff he goes I'm going to take this I'm GNA take this I'm GNA keep it back I'm not giving this to the Lord this is going to belong to me so I'm keeping my family back I'm keeping my business back that God can't have that I'm

keeping this God can't have my money that belongs to me my time does not belong to God my time belongs to me I I'm I'm keeping that back my education that doesn't belong to God that belongs to me my friends they do not belong to God that belongs to me I'm keeping all of this to myself I'll go to church on Sunday I might even serve but God you cannot have all these other things in my life they belong to me and he takes them and he hides them but you can not hide from God

it is the the grace of almighty God that shows up in this moment it says aen you you think what you're doing is just impacting you but we lost the whole battle because you weren't willing to be honest you can read read it later you can read it so many people died aen thought oh this is just me just my family this not bothering anybody else this the LIE of today it's me and my relationship with God mind your business is my truth no he is the truth so since Jesus is the truth and he's

the one painting the picture and leading the way for all of us we do not get to come to the Lord on our terms and tell God what he is or who he is or what he can do listen I am not upset I'm not it might feel I don't know I don't want to feel I don't feel upset I do feel urgent I feel urgent I I I do feel a sense of whoa God man do it in me so you kind of on my own journal my own uh Jesus Journal Journey okay I

I'm in this as well asking God to excavate my heart asking God to purify me asking God to open up my eyes asking me asking God to draw me closer to him I want all of that so aen here keeps this back and he ends up being stoned to death they put a heap of rocks over the man and his family it's a reminder for everyone to go dang this is what happens when you go your own way cu the wages of sin is actually death so now go go back with me to acts go

back with me to acts okay go back with me to acts I told you 15 Pounders I told you I told you I I I I I warned you at the beginning I warned you at the beginning okay but we're going to keep on lifting we're going to keep on we're not we're not leaving class okay we're not Le we're going to let God do in US everything he needs to do in us then Peter verse number three then Peter said uh ananas how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have

lied to the Holy Spirit have kept for yourself some of the money that you received for the land didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after was so wasn't the money at your disposal what made you think of doing such a thing you have not lied just to human beings but to God when ananas heard this he fell down and died turned to and said I hope that doesn't happen today tell them tell them I hope I mean not not today okay not today I was like Lord what if you still did

this I was looking at some of y'all and I thought well you're you're dead you're dead just kidding kidding I was looking at myself I was like whoa what if what if God did it like this today this would be crazy my wife uh I'm talking about her because she's so awesome uh my wife uh we can I tell them what we call your hands honey the the hot I can't say okay we call them uh the Paw uh why because she can grab hot things and it seems not to bother her okay she takes

things out pulls them out of the maybe not all the way out of the oven uh but basically like you know something's on the stove it's hot she just goes we're all like what is going on this is crazy me Parker and Grayson are like oh my gosh mom did it again it's wild you can just grab grab stuff I I mean I'm like you I got regular hands so I grab something that's really hot I go that informs me don't grab that go put on some little Ms get your little oven Ms grab it

then you pull it out it's the immediate pain that informs me don't do it like that we have misinterpreted us not having the consequences right away as God not caring we think I just looked at all this pornography and wait I went to work seems like nobody knew I I sent those texts doesn't seem like anything bad happened I'm good I I got this little bit of bitterness in my heart just a little bit little offense some my whole heart just a little bit but I still got my friends and I still got my job

man I even got a promotion I guess I guess I'm good in actuality it's the grace of God go saying son daughter I love you so much I'm giv you a chance to turn before that sin tries to kill you or your family you know we're not ashamed church here we're not a guilt Church we're not going to do that I don't think it's consistent with the cross it's it's it's not consistent with the cross so since that's not consistent with the cross I don't want to shame or guilt anyone don't want to do that

I want to open our eyes to the beauty of who God is a little bit more I want us to open our eyes to the beauty of who Jesus is and what he has done and we'll begin to see that more clearly and see some text like this we can go oh my goodness Lord cleanse me Purify Me Wash Me cleanse me I got to go through these last few pieces real fast okay stay with you stick with me you guys ready you guys ready okay so so now so now uh you you got some

of us thinking that maybe God doesn't care but he does care cuz I got to bring this point up cuz I thought it was really really important in the text it talks about the young men came in the young men uh grabbed them the young men there's a couple verses that say the young men the young men and I was like oh this is important back then number one it's the beginning of the church aing it was the start of them coming into the promised land in the book of Acts it's the beginning the start

of the church it weren't like a bunch of churches everywhere this is like the beginning of the church so God's like I got to keep this thing incredibly pure and right right now I cannot let this toxic tox toity be in there so I got to deal with this right now right away but you see the young men were the one that came in and carried about carried out the man's body and the woman's body and I thought that was really really important so that you and I understand that how we live impacts the generation

that is coming behind us that how you and I worship how you and I give how you and I forgive how you and I serve how you and I encourage how you and I lead there are some young men and some young women that are watching ing our lives and we need them not to be carrying out dead bodies but they need to see us lifting up the name of Jesus so our teenagers and our and our elementary kids and our babies and our college students go past where we are there's so much hope here

let me tell you this let me uh ananas this is interesting the name ananas uh B can come out here uh the name ananas actually uh uh means this Safa uh is means beautiful it's Aramaic for beautiful ananas is actually in Hebrew means god is gracious so I'm reading these two names when I found that out I was like oh my goodness beautiful and God is gracious in the midst of a story that's pretty heavy and very hot but here is God saying beautiful and I'm gracious so may me go back to Psalm 23 go

with me to Psalm 23 real fast Psalm 23 I was reading Psalm 23 uh go with me to verse number four it goes even though I walk through the darkest Valley I will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me I thought about the darkest Valley and when I read this text and I think this is right he's talking like man life is kind of coming at me I'm in the darkest Valley so yes I I think it actually ought to be interpreted that way but I thought

maybe a secondary interpretation that can work for all of us is maybe he wasn't put in the darkest Valley maybe he brought himself there maybe I'm in the darkest Valley because of my choices I'm in the darkest Valley because of my decisions and notice I don't think the shepherd will change the character of God doesn't change so I will fear no evil cuz you're with me you're riding your staff they come from me even when I go there on purpose and I made the mistake you prepare a table before me in the presence of my

enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup overflow surely oh goodness and mercy so I go back all the way to Acts chapter 5 and I see it said beautiful and God is gracious and I look at what's following him in the darkest Valley goodness and mercy is following him in the darkest Valley so right now I don't want you leaving this moment thinking that anger is hunting you down that vengeance is hunting you down that some type of lightning bolt from God is hunting you down no I think beautiful and God is gracious

is hunting you down I think goodness and mercy is hunting you down I think the love of God and the grace of God is hunting you down and it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance my last verse Psalm 51 Psalm 51 I have a little note in my Bible that says we don't know this for sure but but enough people think it might be true that this was a Psalm that David wrote after his sin of cheating on his wife and or or cheating with another man's wife and killing her husband was

found out and he says these words have mercy on me oh God according to your unfailing love according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me against you you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so you are right in your verdict and Justified when you judge surely I was sinful at Birth sinful from the time my mother conceived me yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb you

taught me wisdom in that secret place cleanse me with hisp and I will be clean wash me and I will be whiter than snow let me hear joy and gladness let the bones you have crushed Rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity create in me a pure heart oh God and renew a steadfast Spirit within me do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing Spirit to sustain me would you bow your

heads family