The Loss Adjuster | Charlotte Gambill

What if the very place you’ve been grieving is the place God is about to move miraculously? Pastor Charlotte Gambill is reminding us that God is not distant from our sorrow, He steps right into it and transforms it. Just like Mary at the tomb, we can find ourselves overwhelmed with grief, unable to see what heaven already knows: the miracle has already begun. If you need fresh faith and freedom from grief, this message is 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.

-CLICK HERE TO SERVE: https://www.shorelinecity.church/join

-CLICK HERE TO GET IN COMMUNITY: https://www.shorelinecity.church/connectgroups 

-CLICK HERE TO LIVE GENEROUSLY: https://www.shorelinecity.church/give

-JESUS FIRST: We’ve been praying for you! If you made the decision to put Jesus first, text “JESUS” to 73000.

-PRAYER: We believe there isn’t anything too small or too big to bring to God. It would be our honor to pray with you. Text “PRAYER” to 73000

STAY CONNECTED

Website: https://www.shorelinecity.church/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shorelinecity/

Facebook:   / shorelinecity  

Pastor Earl:   / earlmcclellan  

Pastor Oneka:   / onekamcclellan  

#ShorelineCity 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. So, so good to be in the house. I'm gonna have you jump to your feet. If you sat down too soon, I'm sorry. Sit down back up. We're gonna get ready to receive the word. I count it an honor. One of our greatest honors, actually, Steve and I, is that we get to be part of this family. We love you deeply. I hope you know that every time we come. I hope you feel that. We carry you in our hearts when we're not here. We inquire about you all the time. We pray for you. We cover you. We cover your leaders who have become some of our closest, dearest friends. We are believing with you for all that God wants to do in and through this place. He's only just begun. And you gotta get ready. God's getting you ready, but I'm just saying, you gotta get ready. You gotta you gotta understand that this, what God is doing, it's not just for you. It's for a lot of others that are like you, that were like you. Lost people that were like you and you were lost, broken people that were like you. This place is a miracle for them, too. So all of those services next week, they're not for the benefit of the team. The team don't need to be here at 6.45. You know what I'm saying? They're for the benefit of your mom or your sister or your brother or your uncle or your colleague or your friend or the person that you met or the cashier at Target or wherever you were shopping. It's it's for those people. Like just invite. Like there's just an openness to say yes at Easter. Like there isn't at other times of the year. And God is using us to be the bridge to get them here. So I want you to be aware that is your responsibility. Like it's before God, your responsibility. You've got to invite someone. You might say, well, I'm a little nervous, just invite. What's the worst that they can happen? They say no. What's the best that they can happen? Their eternity's secured. I'm saying, so let's let's be responsible, right? Church family, let's be responsible to Stuart next week. But we're the week before, and you know, I could talk to you about the entrance of Jesus on Palm Sunday. It would be a great message. It is a great message. But I honestly felt to bring a message to you today from the story of Easter that was really for you, for you, the church, you that love him, you that know him, but to challenge you in your walk because next week, our focus is about those that don't know him. Our focus is about them finding their resurrected Christ. And so this week, you know me. I I want to give you a word that might slap you a little, but I love you enough to slap you a little. And so I know you came ready for a slap from Auntie. I know you did. So, God, we thank you for your word. We're just so thankful for your word. Everybody else's word fails us at times, but yours never does. Everybody else speaks well-intentioned, but sometimes even their best intentions don't give us the clarity we need, but your word does. And everyone thinks that they know the way for our lives, but the answer truly for the way for our lives is only found in one's word, and that is your word. You are our way, you are our truth, you are the light unto our path. And so, God, on this Sunday, I pray that I would get out of the way. And God, I pray that you would speak so clearly. I pray for adjustments today to happen. I pray for light bulbs to go on in people's minds. I pray for there to be a surrender where there needs to be. And God, I pray when we leave this place, we'll leave different than the way we came in. We give you all the glory for it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may take your seats. So at the beginning of every year, like many of you, I'm sure, I spend time asking God, what is it that God would have me to concentrate on, focus on? And honestly, I entered this year with such a sense of passion and excitement and of vigor for the word. I've been preaching the word for over 20 plus years, and uh, and I felt more in love with the word, more passionate about my calling to the word. And so I felt this urgency, but as I was praying, I felt this check in my spirit, and I felt God say, I don't need just your urgency this year, I need your accuracy. And I want to concentrate on that with you for the next few moments, for I think all of us need the reminder that God doesn't need us just running hard, He needs us running in the right direction, He doesn't just need us on fire, He needs us on fire for the right things, He doesn't just need to use us, He needs to use us in a way that actually is to do with the greater plan He has for us. And I think there's an accuracy missing sometimes in the church. But if we could get that accuracy right, I think we could have exponential growth in every area of our lives. And I was reminded as I was praying of an incident that happened to me several years ago. Several years ago, I had been waiting to see a specialist in England. He was a very sought-after doctor, and it was hard to get an appointment with him, but we were on the list, and we've been on the list for actually over a year, and finally we got an appointment confirmed. So I had the date in my calendar, I had the time in my calendar, and you can imagine I was excited, I was expectant. This was potentially a life-changing appointment, and so I went early to my appointment. I didn't want to get caught in the traffic. I was like, I was gonna be there, I was gonna be early. And I got there, sat in the waiting room because I was early. I just knew that my time wasn't yet, and so I was hearing names being called. This person's name would be called over the system, go to this room, then the next name would be called, then the next. And after a while, I look at my clock and I'm like, my appointment time is now, but no one's calling my name. And so I think, well, maybe they're overrun because he's an important man, and these people have waited too, so I have a little grace, a little patience, but now we're 10 minutes, now we're 15 minutes, and I'm like, wait a minute, I I think by now I should have been called. So I go to the desk and I say to the lady, hey, uh I'm here to see the doctor, and I have an appointment, and this was my time, and no one's called my name. And she said, Well, I'm so sorry, let me just check. And so she goes on her system and she looks back at me and she says, Ma'am, she says, You do have an appointment, and it is today, and you do have the right time with that doctor. But did you not get the update? His office is no longer in this building. And I sat there and I all of a sudden realized I'm mad and frustrated that no one's calling my name. But the truth was, my name was being called, but I just wasn't in the room where my name was being called, and I just have a feeling this year that some of you need to shift your perspective and shift where you are because it's not that God is not calling your name, He is calling your name, He does have divine assignments for you, He does have things in His plan for you, but He's not gonna bring what He's doing to the room that you're waiting in if you're in the wrong room. God doesn't do that, you have to move to the right room, and so there's this accuracy that has to match our urgency, otherwise, we're gonna get frustrated that God didn't call us and God's gonna say, But I did call you, but you were out of the wrong place, you were in the wrong time, and it gets dangerous when we get these two scenarios messed up. In the Bible, it tells us about David. David in 2 Samuel, it says in 2 Samuel 11, it was a time when kings go to war. This was the time he was a king. David, it's the time to go to war, you're a king. That's the time, that's the place. But the Bible says that David decided to send everyone else to war, but he stayed home. Now we got a problem. Now you know the time, but you're in the wrong place. Now that you're not in the right place, you're not doing what you should be doing, which means your hands are empty, which means the enemy goes, Well, now that you're not in the right time at the right place, I'll give you something for your hands to do in the wrong place. In walks Bathsheba, which was the turn of sin in David's life that changed the trajectory of David's life. But Bathsheba wouldn't have shown up on the battlefield, which is where David was supposed to be. She showed up where David was not supposed to be. Some of us are fighting the enemy, and we don't even need to be fighting him if we just be in the right place at the right time. You're fighting him because you're down the bar at 1 a.m., but you wouldn't have to fight him if you'd been at home in bed. You're fighting him because you're hanging with that group that do the things that you know you shouldn't do, and you wouldn't need to fight him if you weren't with the group that are doing the things that you shouldn't be doing. We we create a scenario where we're out of step. The Bible puts it this way: it says in Galatians 5, verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, then we should keep in step with the Spirit. Now that sounds simple, but let me illustrate what that means. That means if you're gonna keep in step with someone, you gotta get really close to them. Means you got to get attached to them, means you can't visit that person, but you have to actually be with that person, which means now someone in the relationship has to surrender because someone else has to lead. The Bible's saying if you live by the spirit, then you gotta keep in step with the spirit. So what that looks like is we have to attach ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we have to live our life in a way that we are attached to the Holy Spirit. Because now, when I want to go a certain way, I have tension because the spirit doesn't want to go the way my feelings want to go. When I want to say what I want to say, I feel like it's awkward because the Holy Spirit does not want to say what I feel like I want to say. When I want to put on social media what I want to put on social media, the Holy Spirit is like who's leading this dance, who's leading this step? So it feels awkward, which is why we come on Sunday and we strap ourselves to the Holy Spirit in the worship, and then we unstrap ourselves in the parking lot because we don't want him interfering with our business on Monday. So I'll stay in step with you in the holy place, but I'll just take you off for the rest of the week, and then I'll come back next Sunday and repent for all the places I went that I wouldn't have gone if I'd stayed attached to the Holy Spirit. But the Bible says you gotta keep in step. Now it's awkward at first, just like this, like it doesn't feel natural, like I want to do that, but I'm feeling I shouldn't do that. It's awkward at first, but the more you do it, the more you find a rhythm to walk in step with the Holy Spirit, and this is what the Bible's saying. If you live by the Spirit, then walk in step with the Holy Spirit. There's a right time and there's a right place. Now, I want to help you, and as it's Easter, I want to take us to a story that is around that moment in the Easter story. I want to take you to a picture where there was an adjustment that needed to be made, not with an unbeliever, but with a believer. Next week, we're gonna adjust a lot of unbelievers. This week, God's gonna adjust a few believers. Some of you came to church like, I am ready for this. Too late, you're in the house. We're going there. In John 20, we read the story, the amazing story of when Mary goes to the tomb. But in this story, there is a challenge for Mary. She is going to the tomb for one thing, but she's gonna find a very different thing, and on her way, there's gonna have to be an adjustment so she can be in the right time at the right place. Mary is going because just a few days earlier she has watched Jesus be brutally crucified. I cannot imagine the loss she was experiencing, the grief she was experiencing. She knew Jesus, she loved Jesus, she was close with Jesus, and she had just watched the one she loved be brutally crucified. She'd watched them shout hatred at him, she'd watched them throw all kinds of accusations that she knew were not true at the one that she knew was truth itself. So Mary was broken and she was hurting, and she'd had to wait until she could go to the tomb, but now she could go to the tomb, so she got up early and she ran to that tomb, and she was ready to go and grieve some more. She had a bag of embalming fluids, she was gonna take care of the body, she was just gonna do something to try and make it better, and she runs to the tomb expecting to grieve a little longer. And I want to speak to every single person in the house today in every location, and I want to challenge and ask which one of you entered this year with your embalming fluids, trying to take care of something, control something, grieve something that you should not be embalming anymore, you should not be grieving about anymore, you should have moved on by now, but your emotions have not caught up to where the actual reality is of where God is. Mary gets to the tomb, she's grief-stricken. She looks in the tomb, she's confused. There is nobody. Now she is grieving, but also now she's getting a little hysterical, a little confused. And so it says in John 20 that now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. And as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been. One at the head and the other at the foot. And now I want you to see the next part of this scenario because she's about to be asked a question, and the question she's about to be asked feels very insensitive, and this is why we often detach from the Holy Spirit, because there's times in our life where we feel a certain way, and the Holy Spirit doesn't feel the same way, and so the Holy Spirit starts to say things to you and say things to me that feel insensitive. Like, don't you know? Like, like, don't you understand? I'm mad right now, don't you understand I'm offended right now? Don't you so we unattached from the Holy Spirit because we're not ready to move on from the thing that he's already moved on from, and we want to stay at the tomb for a lot longer than he wants us to be at the tomb, and we want to be mad for a lot longer than he wants to be mad, and we want to be angry, and we call it righteous anger. No, it's not righteous anymore. You're just angry, and you need to stop being angry or we're sassy or we're offended. So she's at the tomb, and and here comes the question woman, why are you crying? It feels insensitive. I mean, isn't it obvious why I'm crying? I mean, I just had a horrific loss, and it wasn't just a loss, I just watched who I love be crucified. Why would you ask me why am I crying? But I want you to know something. Nobody asked her why you are crying when she was at the cross. No one's asking Mary when she's watching Jesus be crucified, and those tears are running down her face. No one's asking her then why are you crying? Because the tears are appropriate at the cross. It's obvious why I'm crying at the cross. There is grace for me to cry at the cross, there is a Holy Spirit moment for me to feel what I feel at the cross. So no one's asking at the cross why are you crying? Because Ecclesiastes 3 says, everything is beautiful in its time, and those tears on that day were beautiful, they were an offering, they were a sign of her love, but that day has gone, and we're not on that day, and now these tears are not beautiful anymore because they're not in the right time anymore, and so there's a question, Mary, why are you crying? And I want to ask some of you today, some of you in the room today, why are you crying? I know that happened, but it happened three months ago. I know you were hurt, but it happened a while ago. Why are you angry? I know what they did was wrong, but what they did was three weeks ago. Why are you offended? I know they put the post on social media, but who cares? It's a new day. Why are you still upset? Why are you crying, Mary? Several years ago, it was Christmas Eve. We were at home with our family like everybody else would be. Hanging and put the kids to bed, and came that point in the evening where we needed to be Santa's helpers, Father Christmas's helpers, and so we went to the basement. I went to the basement where we had put everything. We go to the basement, and as I put my foot on the step to go to the basement, my foot hits water. I'm like, there should not be water on my staircase. And I suddenly realize that while we have been upstairs celebrating with our family, some pipe has burst and our basement has flooded. Everything, and I mean everything, was ruined. The carpet, the sofa, the refrigerator, and every gift that was wrapped was destroyed. You can imagine, I was not very happy. I cried some tears. I'd like to tell you, I'm so holy and spiritual that I stood on that step and said, It does not matter, the Lord is my provider, it's all good, He is good, we're good. I did not say any of the things. I cried, I was mad, I was angry, I went to bed angry, I woke up angry, I cried the next day, I cried for several days after that. Such loss. Then about a week and a half later, there was a knock on our door. I opened the door, there's a gentleman standing there in a suit. He said, Hello, are you Mrs. Gamble? I said, Yes, I am. He said, Well, I'm sorry it's taken me a while to get to you. It's been Christmas, and you know, so we've not been at work, the same schedule, but I'm here now, and he said, I'm from your insurance company. He said, I believe you had a flood. I said, Yes, we did. He said, Well, I work for the insurance company, and my job title is I'm the loss adjuster. And I'm just here to see what it is that you lost, so I can write a check for what we owe. How many of you know I ain't crying anymore? I'm thinking to myself, I hated that sofa. We bought cheap junk for our kids for Christmas. Everybody's about to get an upgrade. I ain't crying anymore because the loss adjuster has showed up at my door. And I just need to say to someone today, you have an insurance company. Your father is your insurance company, and that's why when you're crying, he ain't crying because he knows he already sent his son to be the loss adjuster for what it is that you're crying about. So he's asking, why are you crying? Because he's come to let you know. But I can write a check for the loss that you are now enduring, I can put right what you think has gone wrong, I can make up for the days you think you've lost, I can actually redeem what you think is broken, I can restore what you think there's no way of restoring. I'm the loss adjuster. When you realize who's in the room, you suddenly realize my tears are inappropriate. Why are you crying, Mary? She stands there, and as she's standing there, it gets better. Because now there's a second question, but the second question is not coming from an angel. The second question is coming from Jesus. But Jesus is standing there, but Mary has no clue. It's Jesus, and it says, at this, she turned around and Jesus was standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. And he asked her same question again, woman, why are you crying? Second question. And who? What? What is it you're looking for? Thinking he was the gardener. Wait a minute. How can you think Jesus is a gardener? She knows Jesus. She knew Jesus. But when your head's in the wrong place, you say crazy things. When your emotions are in the wrong place, you can't see what's in front of your eyes. When you're all caught up in the offense, you can't see the freedom that is in front of you. When the anger is all the way up in your grill, you can't see the peace that passes understanding. So when you don't see right, you don't speak right. So now thinking he's the gardener, it gets worse. This is what she says. Sir, if you have carried him away, you better tell me where you put him, and I will go get him. Where are all my control freaks in the house today? I'm just gonna fix this. I'm just gonna fix this scenario in the family. I'm just gonna fix this problem. I'm just showing me where the body is, I'm gonna make it better. I know it's dead, but I'm gonna make it better. I'm gonna make it smell better, I'm gonna make it look better. Just show me where it is. Let me get control back. And some of you are control freaks. And he didn't ask you to control it. He didn't ask you to tidy it up. And I just feel like some of you are gonna waste this year. You're gonna waste your life trying to tidy up something that God did not ask you to tidy up. She is talking to the answer as if it is the problem. She is accusing Jesus of stealing Jesus. She has lost her mind. And some of you are accusing and blaming and finger wagging and commenting because all of the pain wants a name. Your pain wants a name because if it can get a name, it can fall on the name, it can hate on the name, it can talk about the name, it can go to sleep at night being angry about the name, it can tell other people about the name. Don't give your pain a name. I know they might have caused it, but don't name it, because you'll get fixated on it, and then you'll never leave the tomb. So, what are you looking for? I remember years ago, Steve and I going through some hard stuff in church. Because guess what, guys? You go through hard stuff in church because we're not perfect. Also, people say stuff that they shouldn't say. And I remember being mad about it, and I wanted to embalm the body. I wanted the body, I wanted to control the situation, I wanted to shut it down. And I felt the Holy Spirit say, Charlotte, do you want a resolution? Or do you want a solution? Well, those two words sound similar to me, so I had to look at the dictionary out and go, um, I don't know, is there a difference here? A resolution is when you get it all how you want it. In other words, the resolution is you did wrong, so you apologize, I'll accept your apology, I've got a resolution. You you you wrote something bad about me, you now write something good about me, and we're good, we got a resolution. We we come to you owe me money, you pay me back my money, then we got a resolution. A resolution is when I get control in the way I want control. But can I just let you know? I'm heading towards my 53rd year on the planet, so I've learned some stuff. Let me just let you know. There may never come a resolution. They may never say sorry, they may never pay you back, they may never admit they were wrong. So, are you gonna park your life up for the rest of your life, waiting for a body that you can control? Or are you gonna realize I don't need a resolution when I'm talking to the solution? I am talking to the Prince of Peace, I am talking to the one that can make all things new. I am talking to the healer, I am talking to the redeemer, I'm talking to the forgiver, I'm talking to the peacemaker, I'm talking to the waymaker. Right in front of her was Jesus, and yet she's saying, I need a body, I need to control the situation. I really feel to say to you today that God wants to adjust some loss in your life because he needs you to go and reach the very people that have hurt you. I know it's hard to swallow, but some of your loss that he needs to adjust is that you become the bigger person, and they may never become who you want them to become because you can't control that, but there is one that can. And maybe some of your Easter invite is gonna be a hard one because it's to the person that you really don't want to see sat in church. But maybe when God adjusts the loss in you, you're gonna be able to reach out to some people that you would have never reached out to before, and maybe just maybe God's gonna touch their life and make them new, like He made you new, and maybe God can do a loss adjustment in some families, maybe God can do some loss adjustment in some communities. I know I'm speaking to someone today that is like over my dead body. Well, let me tell you, it will be over your dead body because it will kill you to hold on to that hate, it will kill you to hold on to that pain. I'm testifying, I have lived this message. I have lived this message. And there are times in my life where I'm like, God, I they don't deserve it. Like I need to hang around this pain a little longer, I need to be angry a little longer, I need to feel unforgiveness a little longer, I need to feel like I need my feelings to be justified a little longer, but the whole time that I'm in the little longer, I am missing. Mary is all over the place. She's crying, they're asking her why she's crying. She's frustrated, she's trying to find a body. She can't see Jesus because she's so full of things that she feels and the pain that she's nurtured. So Jesus just does one thing. He says one word. One word to get her right time, right place. Jesus said, Mary. And when she heard her name from those lips, she shouts, Bonai, teacher, is it you? And I think some of you today, you need to hear your name again from those lips. Son, daughter, and all of a sudden you realize, wait a minute, I'm trying to embalm a body, but he's not in the body. I'm trying to control it and he's already above it. I'm trying to cry over it and he's already wiped my tears and done something better than I could ever imagine. I just need to come back to center. He is my loss adjuster. Easter is all about how he adjusted our loss. No one else could adjust your loss. No one else could pay the price that he paid. No one else could put right what everyone else had put wrong. But he came and he adjusted every loss. I don't know what your loss is today. I don't know if you're grieving a lost relationship. I don't know if you're broken over lost hope. I don't know if you feel like you've lost trust. I don't know if you feel like you just lost your joy. I don't know if you feel like I lost my peace. I don't know what you lost, but for every single thing you lost, he is the loss adjuster. There is nothing he cannot adjust. And as he calls her name, she turns to him. She realizes he's right here. Like some of you need to realize, he's right here. I know when you get in your car and you drive home today, you're gonna step into some awkward conversations, and this week you're gonna be around some awkward situations, but he's right there. Just like you feel him right now in this room, he's right there in that room, and he's just wondering, would you like to adjust this loss? You wanna cry some more? Are you ready to wipe your tears? You want to vent some more, or do you want to let me be the peacemaker? And then he says to her, Mary, don't hold on to me. Don't try and make a shrine in this moment. I need you to go. I need you to go, Mary, and tell everyone. Tell everyone what you just witnessed. Tell all your brothers, tell all the disciples, tell them that I'm ascending to the Father, tell them that the resurrection has happened, tell them that there's a greater day ahead of them, and I'm pulling us all in today to say, God wants to adjust your loss, and then he wants you to go and tell them what God did for me, he can do for you. I had a broken marriage, but he was my loss adjuster, and he can fix yours. I was without peace, but he gave me peace and he can give it to you too. I need you to go, don't make a shrine out of this, don't keep it to yourself, like Pastor Earl said earlier. Don't keep this to yourself. Go. And if you know, you have lost today. Because we all do, and I know this brings tears because I can see them. I know this pulls on our heart because I can feel it. But I'm just letting you know, God this year wants to give you such accuracy so you can speak into a circumstance that you have been crying about for far too long, so you can speak a word into a troubled situation that has taken too much energy and time from you. God wants to adjust a loss today. Just close your eyes right where you are. God, we know you're here in the room. And on this Palm Sunday, when you began that journey to embrace the greatest loss that anyone could embrace. You only took the loss because you knew it was going to adjust. You knew the cross would be the loss adjusting place for all of humanity. You knew it took your brokenness to restore our brokenness. You took on our sin and your you took on our shame because you were loss adjusting for our future, for our sake. So, what a waste it would be if we didn't receive the gift of the adjustment you paid the highest price for. You adjusted every brokenness so that it could be fully restored. And God, some need restoration today. Need restoration in their marriage, restoration in their family. God, they need the loss adjuster even in a circumstance right now that they are dealing with with their children. They need a loss adjuster in an area of their hope and their trust. And God, you're right here in this room, like you were right there with Mary, and you're calling our name. And our simple response is Raboni, teacher, Lord. And his eyes are closed all across the house. Maybe today you are just not where you need to be with God. You have been, like I said at the beginning, attaching and detaching for a long time, and now you're realizing through the words of scripture why things keep falling apart, is because you keep unattaching from the thing that you should stay attached to. God's in the room today, and the invitation is clear. Do you want to keep in step with the Spirit? Because if you do, you're gonna have to make a choice. You're gonna have to surrender, you're gonna have to let me lead, even in the area where you feel you should be in charge. I need to be in charge. So if you're surrendering today, if you're saying, God, I'm putting you first again today, I need salvation today, I need repentance today, just put your hand on your heart right where you are. God, you see our hand right now. God, you know the loss that needs adjusting. So, God, as we come and we repent of our sin, as we come and say, God, I'm sorry for detaching when I should have stayed attached. God, I thank you that you are the great adjuster right now, adjusting our lives, adjusting eternities from hell to heaven bound. Thank you for adjusting right now from hopeless to hopeful, from those that feel less than to understanding they are more than. Thank you. Your grace is flowing as the great loss adjuster in this room. And God, we receive your grace, we receive the forgiveness, we receive a fresh start today. Open our eyes, Lord, and let us see what you see in Jesus' name.