A Messy House | Evangelist Michael Maupin

Let's give the Lord a great praise in this place today.

He's worthy. He's worthy of my praise.

He's worthy of my worship. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

What a great God. What a magnificent savior.

What a beautiful day. To be in the House of God.

And what a great time we had here yesterday.

And thankful for the food, the fun, the fellowship.

You know who? No, I don't know.

Whoever said that living for God can't be fun.

It can be. I've all I've heard it said.

And I, I concur that my, my worst days now are better than

my best days then. And I, I love living for God.

This isn't, you know, this isn't a drug.

This isn't a board. This is the best time of my

life. And so thankful for each and

everyone of you all thankful for the McGee family, some of the

kindest, most wonderful people in all the world.

And I love and appreciate them very, very much.

And I want to say if you are a guest here, especially a first

time guest, please do not judge this church by me.

I'm just a guest here also. But please come back and hear

this man of God preach. He's one of the best preachers

you'll ever hear in your life. And Amen, I believe that.

And I want to say thank you for the nice room and the gift

basket. What a probably my favorite gift

basket I've probably ever had. It was the most thoughtful.

Anyway, I don't know if you can tell by the car I drive or

colors I wear, but orange is my favorite color.

And my sister Don McGee went above and beyond everything in

my gift basket is orange. She just, she just went through

the store finding anything orange and throwing it in there.

And the lady when I was checking in the room, she said she she,

you know, just struggled to put that gift basket up on top of

the counter. And she said you might need to

get a cart. This thing's pretty heavy.

So it was a gift basket for a king.

And I didn't feel worthy. But thank you very, very much.

You have your bibles turned with me to.

Proverbs 14 and four. I guess if you don't have your

Bible, you'll just. Have to trust me since the.

The bulb on the the big screen is out.

Proverbs 14 and 4 says where no oxen are.

The crib is clean, but much increase is by the.

Strength of the ox I want to preach for just a few minutes

today on this thought a messy house.

Would you set your? Bible down.

Would you lift your hands? Would you lift your hearts?

Would you help me pray right now?

Lord, we love you and we thank you for your spirit, your

anointing, your power, your majesty that we feel in this

place. God anoint me to preach your

word. Lord, anoint your people to hear

your word, to receive your word, but most importantly to respond

to your word. God, speak to us through your

word and through your spirit today.

And let us leave here challenged and changed and directed and

corrected by today. In Jesus mighty name we pray,

Amen. Why don't we give him another

hand? Clap of praise.

And as you clap your hands, the Bible says also to shout.

Would you add a shout to your handclap?

Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus, thank you

Jesus, thank you, you may be seated.

Solomon in all of his God-given wisdom, understood and shared a

principle and proverbs. A crib can become and even stay

clean but it comes at a great price because you can't have

oxen and keep the crib clean. So you can keep the oxen out and

you can keep the crib clean, but the great prize comes at not

having oxen because the Bible says you lose much increase

without oxen. The crib stays clean and tidy,

but it also stays empty with no harvest.

Without oxen. The crib may be clean, but there

isn't any harvest to put in the crib.

You can't. You can't have a harvest without

oxen, and you can't have oxen without a mess.

We can have a clean church, but it'll be an empty church because

a messy house is a full house we've all seen, and some of us

might even live in a messy house.

Fingerprints all over the appliances, the doors and the TV

and the windows. Toys scattered throughout the

entire house. The trash needed to be taken out

days ago. Windows need to be Windex.

The dust bunnies have invaded and colonized the house.

Could use some vacuuming and maybe even some mopping.

There are piles of dirty clothes and piles of clean clothes and

sometimes we don't remember which is which.

There's dirty dishes in the sink.

There's leftovers on the stove. The bathroom counter, especially

on the one women's side, looks like a hurricane hit.

Don't even attempt to open the closet door because you may be

attacked by an army of clothes and or suit shoe ninjas.

That one junk drawer, because we all have them, don't we has

infected others with its junk. Itis disease and it goes on and

on and on. But we live there.

It's our home. It's our mess.

It might be a mess, but it's our mess.

And a lived in home is a messy home.

But a messy house is a happy house.

A clean house is an empty house. It's a sad place.

It's a sad house. A clean house doesn't have the

pitter patter of little feet running through it.

A clean house doesn't have sticky fingerprints covering

everything. A clean house doesn't have the

sounds of laughter and happiness because it's empty.

A clean house is like a museum. You're afraid to touch anything,

afraid it might break. You're afraid that your shoes

are too dirty for their carpet and maybe even your socks.

Sadly though I've been in some churches like that, Bishop, I

was afraid to break something with my brokenness.

I was fearful that I might mess up something with my messed up

life. But I've come to tell you, this

is a messy house today. But it's not a messed up house.

There's a difference. There's a difference in a dirty

house and a messy house. This isn't a dirty house filled

with the filth of the flesh, but it is a messy house.

And because it's a messy house, it's a mercy house.

And it is a beautiful mess. And there is a message in the

messy. There is a method to the mess,

and there is a blessing in the messy today.

In Genesis 7 the Lord says to Noah, come thou in all the

house, and to the ark. For that there have I seen

righteousness before me in this generation.

Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens the male

and the female, and the beasts that are not clean by two, the

male and his female. So Noah took thee clean and the

unclean animals into the ark. You know what that tells me?

The ark was a messy house, you know.

Think about it. You know what was in the ark?

There were stinky skunks in the ark.

There were bullying bulls in the ark.

There were giraffes that were constantly sticking their noses

and other people's business. There was goats that were

butting in. There were proud Peacocks

strutting around. There were stubborn donkeys that

wouldn't listen to anybody. There were barking dogs whose

bark is worse than their bite. There were elephants that were

pushing their weight around. There were laughing hyenas

mocking everyone and everything. There were monkeys in their

business. No doubt this zoo cruise was a

messy house, but guess what? Outside the Ark was the flood.

Outside the Ark was death, and the mess inside the Ark was

better than the death outside the Ark.

The stink inside the ark was better than the storm outside

the Ark. And this might be a messy house,

and we may have some problems and we may not always get along

and we may disagree sometimes, But I like my chances in this

messy house a lot more than I like it outside of this place,

Paul tells a young Timothy and second Timothy, 2 and 20.

But in a great house, this is a great house.

Today there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of

wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.

In other words, Paul was saying this is a messy house because a

messy house is a mixture of vessels, a mixture of people,

all chosen, all called to do a work for the king and his

Kingdom. But a messy house is also a

great house. Why?

Not the cause of the messes in it, not the cause of the vessels

of honor and the vessels of dishonor.

But the reason this messy house is a great house is because of

the one who can work hard work with and work through our

messes. Today a good friend of mine told

me he used to buy storage units before the show Storage Wars

came out. And he said that before the show

came out you that you might show up at a storage auction and they

might be just a couple of people there.

He said after that show there would be, you know, 100 people

there by trying to strike it rich.

But he he told me that whenever they would cut the the lock and

roll that door open, he said if if he looked inside and

everything was in rubbermaids and everything was labeled and

everything was nice and clean and tidy.

He said he just walked on to the next auction.

He said, he said he always wanted the messy ones because

it, you know, he, he said he was looking for the ones, you know,

that, that, that were disorganized.

You know, you know what I'm talking about.

You know, the ones that had the the country croc tubs and the

cool whip fine China in them and, and stuff just stuffed in

trash bags and thrown in there because he said, and I quote,

there is money in the mess. There is value and variety.

And another show that I like to watch, American Pickers, they

don't stop at manicured mansions.

They stop at places that have a mess, a messy house.

You know why? Because there's just something

about the mess. There's just something about

finding something in the messy. There's just something.

And I think that's the way God looks at a service on Sunday

morning. He didn't come here on this

Sunday morning to find the best dressed person.

He didn't come here on this Sunday morning to find the

person with the most education or the most money in their

wallet or the person that has life figured out.

But he came on this Sunday morning to a messy house looking

for somebody that he can touch, looking for somebody that he can

fix, looking for somebody he can change their lives.

Today Jesus said in Matthew, the Kingdom of heaven is like a

treasure hid in a field. The wish when a man had found,

he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and see selleth all that

he hath and buy at the field. You know what?

You know what was in a field? Field.

Fields are filled with mess. There's rocks and fields,

there's weeds, there's storms, there's dirt, there's mud.

Not to get too graphic, but there's stuff left behind by

animals. The field, it was filled with

messes, but guess what else? It was filled with a treasure.

And this place today might be filled with messes, but it's

also filled with a treasure. And that treasure is the Holy

Ghost, because when Jesus steps in to your mess, when Jesus

steps into the problem, when Jesus steps into the hurt, when

Jesus steps into the brokenness, when the master of the mess

steps into this place, he can bring a treasure out of you.

Today. Jesus tells 3 very familiar

parables in Luke 15. One of them he says in verse 8

either what woman having 10 pieces of silver, and she loses

just one piece? Does she not light a candle and

sweep the house and seek diligently till she finds it?

And when she has found it, she call with her friends and her

neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have

found the peace which I had lost.

Likewise I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the

angels of God over one Sinner that repent.

So this woman in this parable, she cleaned her messy house to

find the lost coin, and then she turns around and throws a party

and makes it messy again. I think that's what God wants us

to do on this Sunday morning. Let's clean this house to find

that one lost soul. But then let's make it messy

again by throwing a party and joining with the angels of

heaven over one soul that's in this altar, repenting over one

soul being baptized in the only name under heaven whereby we

must be sent one soul being filled with the Holy Ghost.

I'm thankful for a messy house today Jesus tells another

parable in Luke 14. He said a certain man made a

great supper and made many and sent his servant at supper time

to say to them that were been come for all things are now

ready. And they all with one consent

began to do what we do, make excuses.

One of them said, well, I bought some land and I got to go.

Look at it. That was just an excuse.

You don't buy land without looking at it first.

Another one said, well, I bought some oxen and I got to go try

them out. That was just an excuse.

You don't buy a car without test driving it.

The last one said, well, I just got married.

I got to go see my wife. He might have been telling the

truth, he might not have been making an excuse.

But the servant comes and he shows all these excuses to the

Lord of this great supper. And the master of the house,

being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the

streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in hit, or the

poor and the maimed, and the halt and the block.

In other words, he said bring in the messy, because if they don't

want it, there's somebody out there that if you don't want

what God has for you today, God's got somebody with a messed

up life out there. God's got somebody in Alcohol

Anonymous, God's got somebody in drug rehab.

God's got somebody living in a cardboard box.

God's got somebody out there in a prison cell that will want

this. So he said, if they don't want

it, bring in the message. And the servant said, Lord, it

is done as thou hast commanded in their steel room.

And the Lord said to the servant, go out into the

highways. See the church, I'm not saying

this church, but the church, the global church.

We have gotten really good at going to the highways.

See the highways are where we find everybody that everybody

wants. It's on the highways we find

people that are educated, so we won't have to put a whole lot of

effort in discipling them. It's on the highways we find

people who have good jobs, so they'll be, they'll be able to

pay their tithes and offerings. It's on the highways we find

people that haven't been divorced and remarried 12 times,

so they won't be dragging a bunch, a bunch of baggage into

the House of God. We've gotten really good at

going, you know, bring us a teacher and bring us a policeman

and bring us a, a businessman and bring us a manager.

Bring us those people. We, we like those, but the, the

Lord of this servant, the type and shadow of Jesus didn't just

say go to the highways, but he said go to the hedges because on

the side of the highways are the hedges.

And lying in the hedges are people that were once on life's

highway. But life and, and addiction and

pain and heartache have knocked them off the highway.

And now they lie bloodied and broken and bruised and confused

and lonely and hurting in the hedges.

And every once in awhile we need to get off our holiness highway

and we need to get down and get our hands a little messy and get

our hands a little dirty and reach down and talk.

Find somebody that we can bring to that this messy house so that

God can restore them. Jeremiah 18 The word which came

to Jeremiah from the Lord's saying, rise and go down to the

Potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.

Then I went down to the Potter's house and behold, he wrought a

work on the wheels. You know what the Potter's house

is? It's a messy house.

I don't know if you've ever seen anybody do pottery.

I have. There's there's a big old bucket

of dirty water. There's dried clay all over

every the walls, the floor, the ceiling.

That the Potter himself or herself, that they've got clay

and dirt all over them. They've got it on their face.

Potter's house is a messy house. But I want you to know there's a

miracle on the mess because the Potter, Jeremiah said when he

went down to the Potter's house, he watched.

He observed the Potter working on the wheel and noticed verse

#4 it says. And the vessel that he made of

clay was marred or it was a mess.

But here's here's where the miracle comes from because it

was marred in the hand of the Potter.

See if I can stay in this messy house today and my life becomes

marred. My life becomes a mess.

I'm okay because I'm still in the Potters hand.

The problem comes whenever I'm out there on my own and I'm

trying to figure it out myself and my life is a mess and not

this vessel becomes marred. But as long as I stay in his

hand, if my life is a mess, as long as I'm in his hand, he's

not done with me. As long as I stay on the

Potter's wheel, he's not done with me.

Because the Potter didn't throw the clay away.

He didn't start it and say this, this has no value anymore.

It's a marred mess. But the Bible says he began to

make it another vessel and seemed good.

Not to your spouse, not to your pastor, not to the evangelist.

But it seemed good to the Potter to make it.

So there is a miracle in the mess because the Potter is in

the business of making the mess into a masterpiece today.

This is a messy house. Let there be Bobby pins laying

in the carpet from people shouting.

This is a messy house. Let there be dirty kleenexes and

snot rags laying around this altar from all the weeping in

the prey. This is a messy house.

Let there be tear stained altars and tear stained pews.

Let this be a messy house and God bless the mess.

God bless this messy house. You know what else was messy in

biblical times? Sacrifices.

Sacrifices were messy. The high priest would take an

animal kicking and screaming. He would take a knife and slit

his throat. He would then take that same

knife and literally split that animal into two pieces.

Then he would be offered as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord.

Biblical sacrifices were literally a bloody mess, but the

untold millions of animals and that were sacrificed in the

countless billions of gallons of blood that were shed, they would

only pacify God but never satisfy God.

So God would come in the likeness of that same failed,

flailed, fallen, messy flesh as Jesus Christ, and He would come

and he would become our ultimate sacrifice.

And you know what? There was nothing pretty about

the cross. There was nothing beautiful

about it. It was bloody and it was gory.

It wasn't like the nice picture hanging on Grandma's wall.

Calvary, the cross, the crucifixion, it was a bloody

mess. So I guess you could say he was

our messy Messiah because and because of that great truth, we

can bring our message to the Messiah today because he loves

the messy. He loves a messy house.

Your mess. I want to tell you today, your

mess might scare family and friends away, but it does not

scare him. Your mess might stress out

people, but it does not stress him out.

Your mess doesn't bother him one bit.

Your mess may scare off the lawyer and it may scare off the

banker. It may scare off the counselor,

it may scare off the the psychologist, but your mess

doesn't bother him. He's been getting his hands

dirty since the beginning of time.

He reached down into the dirt and he created Adam.

He reached down. When he came as Jesus, he

reached down with his finger and rode in the dirt.

When they brought a messy life, a woman called in an adultery.

So I promise you today, your mess, your messy situation, your

messed up life, it doesn't bother him and it does not keep

him from working today. See the bad news today is your

life is a mess. Your marriage is a mess.

Your family is a mess. Your finances are a mess.

Your heart is a mess, your mind is a mess.

Everything is a mess, preacher. Everything I touch ends up being

a mess. That's the bad news.

But the good news is you're in the right place at the right

time because you are in a messy house today.

And the Messiah has a unique ability to mix your mess with

His mercy. And He can make a miracle out of

your mess. He can make a masterpiece out of

your mess. So whatever it is you brought

here today, no matter what it is, no matter how messy, no

matter how hurt, no matter how broken, no matter how battered

or bruised you may be, you've come to the greatest place and

this entirety of this town. You've come to a messy house.

And God is able to work in this place.

So as we stand all across this house, every head is bowed.

Every eyes closed. I wonder today, is there anybody

that brought a mess to this place and maybe you were afraid,

maybe you were embarrassed. Maybe your pride would say to

you, don't you go up front? Don't you go to an altar because

look, I know how the devil works.

He's already whispered in some of your ear.

Don't listen to that preacher. If you go to the the altar,

people are think that you're a messed up.

If you go to that altar, people think your life is a mess.

Don't go to that altar. You know why he he doesn't.

He knows that when you bring your mess to Jesus, Jesus can

fix it. And so he'll do anything he can

to keep you in your Pew today. But instead, why don't you

understand that we all have been a mess in our life?

We've all had messes. We've all messed up.

We've all done things. We've all had things happen to

us that were messy. But the difference between US

and them is that we came to a messy house.

We came to an altar. We came when we gave our mess to

the Messiah. He made something amazing.

As I read about the Potter's house, the Potter's will, I

would just like to think today that this altar is a symbol and

a representation of the Potter's will and that when we bring our

mess, we bring our marrying and we say, God, I want to be marred

in your hand. I don't want to be marred out

there on my own. I don't want to try to figure

life out by myself. But God, I want to bring my mess

and I want to put myself back on the Potter's wheel so that you

can make me and mow me and create.

Something beautiful. So as heavy head is about every

eyes closed, this altar, this Potter's wheel is open today.

And I wonder, is there somebody that would like to bring their

mess? Don't be afraid, don't be

ashamed. Don't let Prague keep you in the

Pew today, but step out of your seat and make your way down to

an altar and come in contact with the one who loves the

messy. He can take your mess and mix it

with mercy and make a masterpiece out of it today.

Come on, would you allow him to work?

He's here today. He's ready to work, He's ready

to move, He's ready to fix. He's ready to put things back

together. He's ready to touch you today.

But you've got to willingly lay yourself on the Potter's will

today and say, God, I might be marred, I might be a mess, but I

want to stay in your hand because it's in your hand that

there is safety. It's in your hand that there is

restoration. It's in your hand.

There's restitution. It's in your hand, God, that I

want to be today.