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Pastor Matt Brown, Justin Pardee and Stephanie Keen unpack Luke 9 and questions from community groups about whether or not Jesus is God, presidential candidates and why we don't always understand what Jesus has to say. Special guest (and Pastor Matt’s wife) Tammy Brown talks about what’s coming for women at Sandals Church.
Real faith. Real life. Hosted by Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown of Sandals Church, The Debrief Podcast goes beyond Sunday conversations—diving into the questions, stories, and struggles that shape who we are. Thoughtful. Honest. Unfiltered.
Your thoughts when you're talking don't run faster than your mouth.
Justin Pardee:Oh. I don't know
Matt Brown:why I asked that.
Justin Pardee:You gotta stay with them.
Matt Brown:I know I know that your your thoughts do not outpace your your mouth. So I don't know why Exactly.
Justin Pardee:My mouth is just going, man. At all times. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Debrief episode definitely seven. Super excited.
Justin Pardee:I am Justin hanging out here with the one and only Stephanie.
Stephanie Schaefer:That's me. Hi.
Justin Pardee:Indeed. And we got of course, Pastor Matt.
Matt Brown:Hey, guys. Thanks for listening.
Justin Pardee:Dude, I'm I'm excited a little bit later on in this episode. We are bringing on your wife Tammy to talk about the Cultivate conference and all that other good stuff happening. But this is your all's twentieth anniversary this week. Is that right?
Matt Brown:Yeah. We're gonna celebrate twenty years together married and she will celebrate her birthday this year and she'll be 29 once again for the eleventh year in a row.
Stephanie Schaefer:It's a miracle early. You guys just Yeah. It's magic.
Justin Pardee:Yeah. Exactly. It's a big week for you guys. And then today is coming out. This is March 1.
Justin Pardee:Yesterday was leap day. Very excited about leap day just because it only happens once like Every four years. Well, yes. When you say it like that, it sounds like it's a little bit more common than that one comment that Mark Twain talked about.
Matt Brown:Yeah. Isn't that a thing? Yeah. I think according to the Jewish calendar, they have to add like an extra two months every couple years or something. It's it's bizarre because they're on a lunar cycle, so it's different.
Matt Brown:That's so confusing. So they have like whole months that disappear and reappear. So that is not a theological position from our church, but I believe that is a calendar reality for the Jewish people.
Justin Pardee:Interesting. I I I operate on a lunar cycle. Hey. So I was talking to a guy at church this last week and it was so cool because when we were talking about from Luke chapter eight, one of the teachings when Jesus was doing the parable of the the seeds, right? That guy who throws seeds and you were talking about how to attend the good soil and you even talked to us about like making sure that we're singing in church and the battles that go on before there.
Justin Pardee:This guy approached me at church this weekend and he said, you know, his name is Sean. He's like, from the first time in a long time, like I came and I intentionally chose, I'm gonna sing words out loud instead of just head bobbing or whatever, which I thought was really cool.
Matt Brown:So Yeah. That's important.
Justin Pardee:Super super cool. Man, we're gonna jump in here with some q and a and all those kinds of things. But once again, everybody who has been supporting us in the iTunes, leaving reviews everywhere, sharing the podcast with your friends, thank you so much. And then shout out to all of our brand new listeners. If this is your very first episode, you should probably go back to the very beginning because I think we're just like kind of building some momentum right now.
Justin Pardee:And sometimes it's nice to go back and see where everything started.
Matt Brown:Yeah. Hope it looks good
Stephanie Schaefer:thing to go back. I don't think they have to stop now. Indeed. They already started. I mean
Justin Pardee:Indeed.
Matt Brown:Yeah. But they're missing out on wisdom.
Justin Pardee:From the voot from the beginning? Yeah.
Matt Brown:I agree. From the view.
Justin Pardee:Please No. No. No. Wisdom from the beginning. From the beginning.
Justin Pardee:In addition to wisdom, also just some great little fun moments.
Matt Brown:Yeah.
Stephanie Schaefer:That's
Justin Pardee:Excellent. Well, let's jump right in. Can we throw some questions at you?
Matt Brown:Yeah. Go ahead.
Justin Pardee:Okay. So, I got two great questions that we want to hit you with from Luke chapter eight which you preached on last week. So here's the very first one to jump right in. This comes from Heather in Shannon Chamberlain's group. And in Luke chapter eight, Jesus heals the demon possessed guy and verse 39 says, Jesus tells everybody, go back He tells the man, go back to your family and tell them everything God has done for you.
Justin Pardee:And then, the very next story, Jesus raises this guy named Jairus' daughter from the dead. And here in verse 56, Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone what had happened. Mhmm. So what's going on there? Why in some of the times does Jesus tell people to like not tell their friends or family and then other times he says, tell everybody what's God doing in your life?
Matt Brown:Yeah. Well, I think that there's I think it's a great question, and thanks for all the small groups who send in questions. But the reality there is is when Jesus takes credit for the miracle, he's actually pointing to God. He says, tell everyone what God did for you. He doesn't say, tell everyone what I did for you.
Matt Brown:But I think when he feels like there's no way that he can get around what specifically what he his part in the process is, he says, don't tell anyone what I did is what he's doing. And so, I think that's the difference is it's fine to give God the credit and God the glory, but what Jesus is trying to do is he's trying to stay under the radar enough to not draw so much attention that both the Jews and the Romans have to deal with him, because he's becoming immensely popular. And one of the things that Romans were extremely concerned about was large gatherings where people would revolt. And so, ultimately, I mean, we believe that the the sadducees, you know, and the pharisees killed Jesus because they were jealous of him, but there was also a genuine concern. So, king or not king, but the high priest Caiaphas says, it is better for one man to die for his people than for everyone.
Matt Brown:And so, he's actually speaking prophetically of what Jesus is doing. So, one man died so that we could all live. But ultimately, what he really believed is, look, if this Jesus keeps going in this way, what's gonna happen is what ultimately happens in 8070. In 8070, there are several rivaling classes of messiahs, would be messiahs who claim to be, right, the Messiah, the Christ, you know, God's messenger on earth, and they rally together and they actually overthrow the Roman government for a time. And then, the Roman Caesar at that time sends armies and they crush, destroy, obliterate Israel in all of its forms ultimately forever.
Matt Brown:I mean, the Jewish people are never the same. Absolutely never the same. And so so Jesus, right, knows that he's gotta navigate this very very delicately between, you know, the person who's healed or saved or whatever knowing who did it and, you know, from the authorities finding out what's happening because again, there's these massive massive crowds that Jesus constantly is running away from. Because he knows eventually what the crowd is gonna wanna do, which is what they do do is try to make him king. They try to make him king and he's like, that's not why, you know, I've come here.
Matt Brown:I didn't come to bring a political revolution. He came to bring personal salvation. And it was so hard for them to understand that, but the Romans and and the Pharisees and Sadducees all knew what the word Messiah meant. And so when he's like revealing himself as Messiah as he does in Luke nine, that is a political statement. He he is he is making a statement that he is a political revolutionary, which ultimately he will usurp governments.
Matt Brown:The bible says in Isaiah that the government will rest upon his shoulders, and of his reign there will be no there there won't be an end. And so, what the Jews didn't understand is that first he had to bring salvation before he could bring, you know, political resurrection, so to speak, because our political system will always be broken Right. Until Christ reigns. And so so I hope that answers the question is is, I think he he takes credit when he points to God. But in other situations, he's like, tell no one what I've done, because what what do you do?
Matt Brown:What what what does Rome do and what I mean, so when you think about it in terms of when do the when do the pharisees say Jesus has to die? There's a specific moment where they say we've got to kill him, and it's right after he raises Lazarus from the dead. They see it, they experience, it's a public raising. So in this instance, right, he goes into the girl's house, little girl arise. And so it's very private, and and makes sense.
Matt Brown:So it's Peter, James, and John, the mom, the dad, and Jesus, and the little girl. That's it. He says not everybody needs to know this. But with Lazarus, right, he's there's there's mourners, there's crowds, they go to the tomb, and he says come forth. And so, that's a public thing.
Matt Brown:And so, when he does that, that's when they say, he has to die and by the way, not just Jesus, but Lazarus has to be killed too because they have to kill the guy who brought him back from the dead and they have to kill the evidence. And so so that's why Jesus has a specific appointment with death. There there there, you know, the book of Revelation says that he was crucified before the foundations of the earth. He is marching towards a moment. Mhmm.
Matt Brown:And so he knows exactly when he's gonna die, And so he has to navigate not dying too soon, because there's a point, a place, he has an appointment with death. And and he's he's amazing at that. So that's what that's why I would say is, you know, when he he can turn it to God, say, you know, show yourself to the priest, give God glory, all that's fine. Mhmm. But when it's, okay, what happened?
Matt Brown:Well, Jesus I mean, it's it's it's a bit different.
Justin Pardee:Am I correct in assuming that all of the events in the book of Luke essentially take place over kind of a three year span? So there's like maybe a couple months in between some of these things?
Matt Brown:Yeah. Well, all all of the all of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, every author feels completely free to move events around. So they don't all happen in chronological order. Like, so the gospel of John. John could care less about the calendar.
Matt Brown:What he wants you to know is Jesus is God. Mhmm. So he starts not with the birth of Jesus like Matthew and Luke do. He starts, we're gonna talk about in a minute with the beginning of time. You know, in the beginning Right.
Matt Brown:God. And so he starts there. So he's not he's not interested. And so that's really really hard for us to grasp in our western minds because everything fits. You know, we're the king of 01/02/1934.
Matt Brown:You know, the Jews might go one three, you know, two four. They'll move all over the place. That's just the way that they think. The eastern mind is very very different. And so what they want us to know, you know, so g or Mark wants us to know that Jesus is, you know, the powerful anointed Christ.
Matt Brown:Luke wants us to know he's the savior of the world. Matthew wants us to know he's the Messiah. John wants us to know that he's God in human flesh. And so they just do whatever they want with the the kinda I'm saying calendar, but the the the events in order, they don't care about They just they don't care about chronology. Thank you.
Matt Brown:They move it around wherever they want to communicate the point that they want while they're writing the story. So and that's why, you know, things are different. When you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there are some things that are the same and there are some things that are radically different. So Matthew, Mark, Luke Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, which means the same. It's a Greek word for meaning the same.
Matt Brown:They're they're the most similar, and then John is the most different because this is the last gospel. And he's really only interested in the last couple weeks of Jesus' life. Mhmm.
Justin Pardee:So Is there a short answer to the question, like if if I have an unbelieving friend or like somebody who's anti christian in my family or whatever, and they're like, well, your bible like is not even telling these things in the same order. Is there a short version to the the question of why are why as Christians are we okay with that?
Matt Brown:Yeah. Well, I think it's number one, it speaks to the authenticity of the scriptures. Like, example, if you look at the copy of a book of Mormon from the eighteen eighties, it's radically different from the copies that people have now. Why? Because there were discrepancies in the original books.
Matt Brown:And so the church of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints has has gone to great lengths to correct all those problems. They've edited. They've edited God's word. And so I think to me the thing that's, you know, so that tells you about the book of Mormon is that it's been changed. It's different.
Matt Brown:The old version is very different from the current version. What we can say is there there haven't been changes. Because right? If you were trying to make things look the same, they they would all be the same and they would all agree completely. But nobody ever felt like they needed to change Matthew's perspective, from Mark's perspective, from Luke's, from John's.
Matt Brown:But they all believe that they were legitimate perspectives and they were okay with that. And the other thing I would say is is because the gospels are different, what that means is they're unique reflections of Jesus. They're not just copied down stories from one person. And that's what a lot of liberal scholars think is that all of these guys pulled from one source, it's called q. It's it's a German word, believe my German I don't speak any German, but I believe the German word q means source.
Matt Brown:So there's one source that all these guys drew from, but the problem is there's no evidence of q. It's a made up theory by by by liberal scholars who wanna say all these guys are copying from one source. But that's not what we see. What we see is four independent accounts of the life of Jesus Christ, and they see different things. Mhmm.
Matt Brown:And they experience different things. But what I would say is they all say this, Jesus Christ came, he died on the cross, and he was raised from the third on the third day. They all say that. You know, sometimes Jesus heals two blind guys. In the other gospel, it was one blind guy.
Matt Brown:I say, it doesn't matter. People A blind guy or two got healed.
Justin Pardee:Right. Right. Right. Bratwurst, is that a German word officially?
Matt Brown:Yeah. Treat. Yeah. It's It's just
Justin Pardee:a German treat, not forget
Matt Brown:the word. It's officially lunchtime.
Justin Pardee:That's I'm just trying to think if I know any more German words than you do. Okay. So last week on the podcast
Stephanie Schaefer:Sorry. That's only German word.
Justin Pardee:Excellent. Excellent. Last week on the podcast, we ended up talking a lot about demons and that kind of stuff. But in your message on Luke chapter eight, really what you talked about is our bodies are containers for our spirits. Right.
Justin Pardee:Right. So one of the questions that came in from Kelly in Danny's group, she said, if if we're safe, so for Christians, does our spirit go to heaven to be with Jesus right away when we die?
Matt Brown:Yes. So there there are different, you know, theological positions on this. And and, you know, some Christians believe in a thing called soul sleep. I do not hold to that position. I I don't believe that and I'll explain why.
Matt Brown:So the idea of soul sleep is is that when you die, your soul goes to sleep. And so you await the resurrection of the dead. The most famous group for that is Ben Carson running for president, Seventh day Adventist. Seventh day Adventist hold to soul sleep. They believe that we we we will live and we will die and we will sleep awaiting Jesus Christ to announce our resurrection.
Matt Brown:The problem with that is is in second Corinthians five six
Justin Pardee:Right.
Matt Brown:Specifically, the apostle Paul is talking about how he's torn between being here and going to heaven. And he's legitimately torn. He says, I wanna be here with you guys because there's work to do, but I also wanna go and be with Christ. And he says, to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord. And I I just don't believe that Paul would have been in a hurry to sleep for two thousand years.
Matt Brown:I mean, I I don't know who would be. Right? What Paul's not the kind of guy to me that that seems like he wants to rest. He wants to work. And he's saying, you know, as long as I'm here in the body, I will work and be productive for the Lord.
Matt Brown:And so I believe based upon that, you know, Jesus says to the thief on the cross, he says, today, you will be with me in paradise. And so he doesn't say, today, you're gonna take a long nap, but when you wake up, I'll be there and you'll be in paradise. Mhmm. So, you know, there's no one that would have heard what Jesus said and assumed that in something called soul sleep. And so, I believe that, like the bible says, to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord.
Matt Brown:So we go to one of two places. We go to be with Jesus, awaiting the day of judgment and our rewards, or we go to hell or prison and we await judgment, the final judgment of all things and all people. And so, you know, Jesus gives a picture of that when he talks about the rich man and Lazarus, which we'll get to in a couple of weeks. But the rich man goes to a place of torment, Jesus says. And, Lazarus, the homeless, poor, broken man who just has sores and begs for food every day, he goes to be in the in the bosom of Abraham, in the arms of Abraham, and so he's blessed instantaneously.
Matt Brown:And so Jesus seems to indicate that there's these two places of waiting. One, with the followers of God and one, who have rejected God and are in prison and await judgment. And apparently, the prison is not nice because Abraham is loathing. Right. Excuse me.
Matt Brown:The rich man is loathing and and begging for even a drop of water to be touched to his tongue.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm. Okay. So we got a bunch of stuff from
Stephanie Schaefer:Sure do. Sorry. I'm breaking things over here.
Justin Pardee:Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So let's jump into a bunch of stuff from Luke chapter nine. There's so much in there that you didn't even get to unpack from your message that was really good stuff.
Stephanie Schaefer:Yeah. One of the things that I wanted to ask about so in Luke nine, it talks about Jesus is sending out the disciples. He says, if a town refuses to welcome you, shake the its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you've abandoned those people to their feet.
Justin Pardee:Shake it off. Shake it off.
Stephanie Schaefer:I was gonna go with the Taylor Swift shake
Matt Brown:it off, actually.
Justin Pardee:Is that not the Taylor Swift version?
Matt Brown:I don't know. But please don't ever sing again.
Justin Pardee:Haters gonna hate me.
Stephanie Schaefer:You There it is. Done. Well done. When do you decide to shake it off, you will? When do you decide to shake the dust off your feet?
Matt Brown:Yeah.
Stephanie Schaefer:So maybe not even like entering into entering into town maybe, but I'm even thinking in relationships.
Matt Brown:Yeah. I I think when there's been a clear presentation. So the assumption is, right, they have come to the village, they have preached the kingdom, they have healed people. So both God's gospel and God's power has been present. And when those two things have taken place, so clearly the gospel has been proclaimed and God's power has been present.
Matt Brown:If there is still a rejection, then you need to be done. So, people have heard the gospel and they've seen God's spirit move in some kind of way. They've experienced something. And that's why I think Hebrews says that once people have tasted of the holy spirit, they've got a taste and they reject him, there's no hope for them. So that's what the author of Hebrews says.
Matt Brown:And so what we need to do is we need to allow people to have their choice. We can continue to pray, we can continue to hope, but who knows what God's gonna do. But here's the thing is, so many of us we spend our time trying to save a person that doesn't wanna be saved. When there's people all around us who are desperate. I think of this story specifically, Tammy and I, we bought our our second home when we were married and we moved into the neighborhood.
Matt Brown:This is one of my favorite stories. Our neighbors to the left of us were just like us, Young, I don't think they had any kids. We we had two little girls. I think Madison was barely two years old. Kennedy was not even one years old yet we moved in and I just knew that Jesus had called us to to reach them for Christ.
Matt Brown:So we went over, I tried to make friends. I did, you know, everything I could to try to woo them into, you know, building relationship with us so we share the gospel. And I remember one time specifically, said, we'd love to invite you over for dinner sometime. I didn't give a date. And the guy says, we're busy.
Matt Brown:I mean, yeah, like, I mean, what he's saying is no, we don't ever we don't ever wanna have dinner with you. Meanwhile, my next door neighbor on my right side, you know, older couple, African American gentleman, about sixty sixty five years old is dying of cancer. I don't know this because I haven't gone to their house. I've seen him outside a couple times doing yard work. His wife's Hispanic, doesn't speak really good English.
Matt Brown:What I don't know is she's heard somehow that I'm a pastor and she's praying every day for me to come to their house. But what I'm doing is, is I'm focused on the people that are like me and I'm trying to share the gospel with them. They have no desire whatsoever to hear the gospel. They they don't they don't care. They know I'm a pastor, we've had those conversations, they could care less.
Matt Brown:And so what's sad is, because I was so focused on them, I didn't get to say yes to my neighbor. Now, God was good and sovereign. And for whatever reason, the man as he was dying started watching TBN. And on TBN, like a lot of people are critical of them, but he repented of his sins and gave his life to Christ and then he died. Then she came over to our house and asked if I would do the funeral.
Matt Brown:Eventually, she gave her life to Christ as well and one of us one of our most faithful members for a couple years in our church. Her name was Mary or Maria, excuse me. Name was Maria. So that's just a great example of so many times, man, we're so focused on praying for a husband whose heart is hardened or our wife whose heart is hardened or our kids whose hearts are hardened. We're not paying attention to the soil that's right next to us that's ripe.
Matt Brown:And so I think, you know, we can offer people that we care about up to Jesus, but we need to focus on where where can I share the gospel and have and and see people get saved? And so that's what I wanna do is I just don't I don't like arguing with people. Like, you're never gonna see me like go argue or debate with an atheist. Why why would I do that? I would much rather talk to a person who's curious.
Matt Brown:A person who's interested. Because I don't wanna waste my time and I don't like arguing. I don't know about you guys, but if I have an opinion about something, very rarely can someone change my mind. And so I'd rather talk to people who are open Right. Wanna hear.
Justin Pardee:How do we how do we discern like because you talked about are they rejecting the gospel? Is that what your neighbors on the other side did?
Matt Brown:Well, I don't know that they reject the gospel, but I had talked to him specifically about, hey, I'd love to tell you. Because Tammy had planted this church. It was very very small. It was growing. I'd love to talk to you about why I'm a pastor and share with you, you know, what I believe about Jesus.
Matt Brown:And he just was not interested. Mean, he just I did. And they were nice. I mean, they weren't rude, but they just weren't interested. And so again, what I would say is pray to God, who are the people in my life that you're moving in?
Matt Brown:Who are the people in my life that I should be talking to? And the problem is we we end up talking to people we wanna talk to, and we miss out on the people God would have us talk to. And and that's our greatest impact is where is God moving? What is God doing? I don't know if
Justin Pardee:that Yeah. I think so. Like I I think sometimes this guy was clearly disinterested like not at all interested, but I think it's hard for a lot of us to accept that you know, he knows what he knows what you're about, he knows what you're there to do, and he's just not interested. And I think it's hard for some of us to say, you know, like to maybe let go and say, alright, I'm gonna go focus on somewhere else.
Matt Brown:Yeah. Well, like I have family members, you know, everyone in my family knows I'm a pastor. I've been a pastor for over twenty years. I have family members who've rejected Jesus. They they don't believe anymore.
Matt Brown:And so when we have family, you know, reunions, get togethers or whatever, I don't try to share the gospel with them anymore. I I've done that. I I have tried to talk to every single family member I have about Jesus and it's just it's just pointless. And and all it does is, you know, by trying to persuade somebody, right, is it just ticks them off. And so what I try to do is be loving and kind, you know, say things like, hey, I'm praying for you.
Matt Brown:You know, I'm concerned for that. And I try to connect with him on other levels, so that one day if the soil ever is softened, I'll be one of the people that they come to talk to. But once somebody once somebody rejects the gospel, you gotta move on because you know, there's other people if you think about it this way, if you if you see a swimming pool full of children and they're all drowning and you jump in and the first kid's gonna fight you off, every second that you're trying to save that kid, you're letting others drown. And and and so you just okay. The kid doesn't wanna be saved.
Matt Brown:You gotta let him go. And you gotta grab the kids that you can and save as many as you can.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm.
Matt Brown:And people say that's harsh and I said, no, it's wise. It's wisdom. So you try rescuing somebody that doesn't want to be saved.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm.
Matt Brown:It's gonna be a fight.
Justin Pardee:So Got it. Well, speaking of fights, let's talk politics for a minute here. Because Luke chapter nine basically verses 21 through 22, Jesus essentially tells the Jewish people like, hey, I am not the political savior Messiah that you're looking for and you talked a lot about that how especially during election cycles, we tend to get really focused on looking for a presidential political candidate to kind of be a savior of our nation or the world's issues or all those kinds of things. Let's just talk really quickly, how as Christians, people trying to follow Jesus, do we evaluate political candidates and make decisions about voting?
Matt Brown:Right. And I would just say this, every candidate is flawed. I mean, they don't get to where they are with the exception maybe of Ben Carson. I mean, that guy, he's just too sweet and nice to be in politics, which is why he's losing so terribly. He's probably he's probably the first character ever.
Matt Brown:I think Jimmy Carter was a good man. I don't think he was a great president, but I think he was a good man. And so the first thing that I would say is, I think the mistake that we've made as evangelicals is we try to elect pastors to the presidency. And I just don't know that that's wise. I think that we need to elect the best person for the position and your pastor is your pastor, your president needs to be your president and you need to look at that.
Matt Brown:So, I have good godly Christians who are Democrats, and I have certain objections with them. But there's also some problems on the right with the positions that they hold about wealth and power and stuff like that. So neither side is perfect. What I would say is this is, you know, as Christians, we need we need to become seriously aware that our religious freedom is potentially in real danger. And and the reason for that is is is those who are on the left, and I and I used to be a left leaning individual, believe that the constitution is a living document and should be interpreted and is open to change.
Matt Brown:And the problem with that is as Christians, we enjoy the freedom we have because of our, you know, our first amendment. Our right to practice our religion as we seek. And the problem with that is that that right is already being eroded. You're seeing people who have to make a wedding cake, or you're seeing, you know, people who have to perform a certain ceremony or open their house for a gay wedding when they have religious objections to that. And people say, well, that's the cost of being American.
Matt Brown:And I just disagree. You know, let's say I own a tattoo shop, and somebody came in and wanted me to tattoo on their arm, you know, something negative about black people or negative about Asian people. I believe that I should be able to conscientiously object to putting that on their body. I I don't have to do that as an American citizen.
Justin Pardee:Sure.
Matt Brown:And so I think that, you know, a lot of our freedoms are being eroded. And and and I it is my hope that we will have, you know, not a Democrat or a Republican nomination to the supreme court, but a constitutionalist. And someone who sees that the constitution must be defended and upheld, and the freedoms that we have are important. And I think that our founding fathers were wise, they'd seen the corruption of government, they'd seen that government is dangerous and the thing that to be feared the most is government because it's powerful and they can take your life and your freedom. And so I think that as as Christians, we need to be very very aware as we're, you know, assessing our candidates that the next person is gonna decide the supreme court justices.
Matt Brown:Two, maybe three, potentially four. I mean, lot of these people are very very old. Sure. And so that that's gonna make a big big difference in how we live our lives as Christians in America, and so that's huge. So what I would say is you gotta evaluate your your your candidate, and just know this, they're all going to pander to your spirituality.
Matt Brown:They all are, every single one. You know, Bill Clinton called himself a black preacher. So, and then now Donald Trump has been radically saved, although, know, I heard I've heard him say, he's never asked God for forgiveness. And to me, you know, that's like me claiming to be a swimmer, but I've never been in a pool. Yeah.
Matt Brown:I mean, it just it doesn't make any sense to me. And so, know, no matter if they're on the left or the right, they're going to try to pander to us and convince us that somehow they're saved and they know Jesus, so that we'll vote for them. And what I would just say is just pray about it and ask God to to guide you and evaluate. I mean, single one of them is flawed. They just are.
Matt Brown:They're not they're not perfect. You know, politics is the definition of politics is who gets what, when, where, and how. And that means by definition, it's gonna be an ugly process. And so, we need to pray for those people and and pray that, you know, God will somehow bless our nation in spite of the people that we elect. And so, I'm hopeful, but, you know, I I will never endorse a candidate.
Matt Brown:I just don't think that's my call. I think my call is to pastor and to shepherd people and to challenge them to use their own minds that God has given But I think we need to be weary of electing somebody who claims to be a Christian, and everything about them is the opposite of what Christ has called us to do. And so I think that that's important.
Justin Pardee:Got it.
Stephanie Schaefer:In Luke nine, Jesus is talking to his followers about what's gonna happen to him. And right after that, it says, they didn't know what he meant. Its significance was hidden from them, so they couldn't understand it, and they're afraid to ask him about it. Why does Jesus say things and then immediately say, sorry, you're not gonna understand
Matt Brown:Yeah. Well, because they they couldn't understand. They couldn't possibly fathom that a guy by Jesus like Jesus is gonna be crucified. I mean, had they fully understand that, most of them probably would have abandoned him at that moment. I mean, right?
Matt Brown:Are you are you going to, you know, think about in a political candidacy. Are you gonna support the candidate you know is going to lose? No. Most people are not. You're gonna shift your allegiances and follow somebody that has a chance to be elected.
Matt Brown:Right. And so Jesus is saying, man, guys, I'm gonna lose. And not only am I gonna lose, they're gonna kill me.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm.
Matt Brown:You know? I mean, my my political campaign is gonna end in my death. And so they didn't understand what what this meant. They they couldn't possibly comprehend how he would be rejected, how he'd be suffered, because he's the most popular person in Israel at that time. Right.
Matt Brown:I mean, Herod doesn't wanna kill him. He wants to see him. Mhmm. He wants to meet him. Yeah.
Matt Brown:I mean, he he he's the wonder worker. He's amazing. And so they couldn't understand it. They didn't get it. And, you know, it's not until the post resurrection and and the falling of the holy spirit upon them that they begin to be like, oh, that's what he was talking about.
Matt Brown:Right? You're not gonna die, Jesus. That's not gonna happen. I mean, Peter even says in another gospel, I'm not gonna let that happen. I'm not gonna let you die.
Matt Brown:And Jesus calls him Satan and says, get behind me Satan. So so not only don't they get it, but Peter is opposed to his suffering and to his dying. This is not gonna happen. I'm not gonna let this happen. And and even on on Good Friday, Peter cuts off the ear of a Roman soldier because he's still trying to prevent it.
Matt Brown:Mhmm. They love Jesus. They don't want him to die. They wanted him to rule and reign. And they just they just didn't get it.
Matt Brown:And and again, so you asked me earlier, how can we trust the scriptures? Why would they put that in there? I mean, these are the guys that wrote it. I I think they would say, yeah, I always knew. I was the one that knew.
Matt Brown:Judas didn't know, but I I knew. Well, none of them knew. And then they don't present that in any way shape or form. They present themselves as clueless. Mhmm.
Matt Brown:They didn't understand Jesus. I mean, they're never the hero. Jesus is.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Matt Brown:And and he's gone. So I think it speaks to the authenticity and the reliability of scriptures. These guys are saying, we didn't get it.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm. Yeah. That makes sense to me. It seems like there's a lot of times just in going through life where there are certain things that you don't fully understand or appreciate until you step like into the next season of life like Yeah. You know, you get a mortgage or Yeah.
Justin Pardee:Kids or whatever that is. So, really cool. Okay. Well, one of the things that you just touched on but seems to be a really significant part of Luke chapter nine. There's kind of this key little section of verses around 35 to 36, which in my bible was labeled the transfiguration of Jesus.
Justin Pardee:And here's kind of one of one of the big parts says, and a voice came out of the cloud, Jesus is up at the top of the mountain with three of his apostle guys and the voice comes out of the cloud saying, this is my son, my chosen one, listen to him. And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone and they kept silent until no one in those days of anything they'd seen. So God appears totally crazy. Jesus like lights up like he's glowing, all kinds of stuff. Can you talk to us about what is going on here?
Matt Brown:Yeah. I mean, it's the freakiest thing probably human eyes have ever seen. The bible says that they were terrified. They were absolutely scared to death because Jesus Christ's body transfigured. I mean, somehow, in some way, we're gonna talk about Philippians two in just a couple of minutes about how Christ emptied himself of his deity and became a man.
Matt Brown:Or or emptied himself, let me clarify, of his divine attributes and qualities to become a man. And so now, almost what's happening is it's like he's he's pulling off the suit. Like, know, he's he's opening the shirt and he's letting them see who he really is. Mhmm. And it's so bright, it's so radiant, it's staring at the sun and they and they don't know what to do.
Matt Brown:And then, so it goes from like sheer brightness to darkness. And there's a cloud cover and all of a sudden there's a voice. This is my beloved son, my chosen one. So they got the chosen one, right? Because he said, who do you say that I am?
Matt Brown:And Peter said, you're the chosen one, you're the Christ. But now they know he's not just he's not just the Messiah, but he's God's son.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Matt Brown:There's a uniqueness there. There's a relationship there that, you know, I don't know that Jews would have understood the Messiah to be divine. I I just don't think that they would have ever comprehended that. And that's another reasons why so many Jews reject Jesus today because God can't have a son. There's only one God.
Matt Brown:How how is it that he has a son? That's impossible because now you have two gods. Well, Christians, we don't believe in two gods. We believe in one God who's existed eternally in three relationships.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Matt Brown:His father, his son, and his spirit. And they all interact with us in different ways. And somehow they're three and they're one. And so this blew their minds. But man, I mean, they are absolutely terrified.
Matt Brown:It's one of my favorite places to visit in Israel. It's Mount Tabor. I just love it. A lot of evangelical churches don't go there because it's a disputed site. But I just think it is truly a magical spiritual place.
Matt Brown:I just love it and it's it's just a beautiful church on the top of this mountain. Like I said, it's Mount Tabor, I believe is about 500 feet taller than Mount Rubidou here in Riverside. So that gives you kind of a perspective for how large it is. And we take these little mini buses all the way up to the top and it's terrifying. But we get up to the top and then you get out and you're in a Catholic church.
Matt Brown:And there's been a church there, you know, for over fifteen hundred years. It's just beautiful. And you're overlooking almost all of Northern Israel. You can see where Mount Carmel, where Elijah battled the the prophets of Baal. You can see the the Armageddon Valley, you can see Galilee, you can see Mount Hermon, you know, 9,500 feet tall.
Matt Brown:You can see everything. You can see the Mediterranean Ocean from it. It's just spectacularly beautiful. And I think it's I don't know, you know, whether it was that spot or not, I think it's an awesome place to connect with this idea that disciples got to get a glimpse, just a glimpse of who Jesus really is. And he shared that not even with all 12, He only shared it with three, Peter, James, and John, the leaders of the 12.
Matt Brown:And I think that they didn't speak about it in that instance because they didn't know they didn't know what to say. How would you describe that? Mhmm. They they didn't they didn't have any clue. There's no human words to describe ultimately divine qualities.
Matt Brown:There just aren't.
Justin Pardee:Right. Knowing what I know now, I would describe it maybe as kinda like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but not quite so scary.
Matt Brown:Yeah. Not the melting faces and all that stuff.
Justin Pardee:Yeah. But there's like they light up and it's pretty intense.
Matt Brown:Yeah. It's beautiful. Yeah. That's right. Most of our viewers probably didn't see that movie because they weren't born.
Matt Brown:But yeah. Yeah. Way to date yourself.
Justin Pardee:No. That's like one of the second one of the top five films of all time. Well, let's talk more about who who Jesus really is. Right? You mentioned this weekend, if we had time we would talk all about that and you specifically talked about like five biblical passages that you called the top five to talk about like who Jesus is as God.
Justin Pardee:Can we jump into those?
Matt Brown:Yeah. Absolutely. So, I I think that as Christians, we need to really be able to have these five passages in our arsenal. Say a Jehovah Witness comes to your door, you know, they don't believe that Jesus Christ is God. They believe that He's an angel, they believe that He's created.
Matt Brown:They believe that He's amazing and deserves our utmost respect, loyalty, and they go around spreading the gospel to His name, but they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Right. And so, like I said before is, at Sandals Church with Christianity, we we don't believe that Jesus is God because we want him to be God, or because we need him to be God. We believe at Sandals Church with Christianity that Jesus is God because that is what the Bible says. The Bible says he is God.
Matt Brown:And there's five specific places where it talks about the deity of God. And deity means, he's divine. So when I'm using that word, that's that's what it means. The deity of Jesus Christ is talking about his divinity. He is God like.
Matt Brown:We are humans, so our humanity, Jesus is divine, so we speak of him as in his divinity. So, my my master's degree is a masters of divinity. And so, it's it's the study of God and who he is. And so so the first passage that everybody needs to turn to is, and if you have your Bibles with you, I mean, if you're driving, but is John, the gospel of John chapter one verses one through four. And so John is writing to a Greek thinking, a Greek speaking audience.
Justin Pardee:Okay.
Matt Brown:So Greek is the dominant culture. Just like today in our world, American culture is the dominant culture. There's no other culture that's even close. No matter where you go in the world. Right?
Matt Brown:They know
Justin Pardee:Kobe.
Matt Brown:Yeah. They know Kobe Bryant. They know you said you said shake it off. Taylor Swift. They know Taylor Swift.
Matt Brown:They know coke. I mean, the most the most well known word in the world, English word in the world is coke. I mean, no matter where you go, you say coke, they know what you mean. So American culture dominates. Its music dominates.
Matt Brown:I remember when Tammy and I, we went to Peru, we went to Peru and all the music is American. Right. So it's just it's just amazing. And so Greek culture and thought was that way. And so when the gospel of John is written, he uses the word logos to describe who God is and who Jesus is.
Matt Brown:And it says this, it says in the beginning, the word already existed. Now, the word word in the Greek is logos. So it would be in the beginning, the logos already existed. The logos was with God and the logos was God. It says he existed in the beginning with God and God created everything through him and nothing was created except through him.
Matt Brown:The world gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone. And so, when he's trying to describe to us who Jesus is, he uses this word logos. Mhmm. And and the word logos is a Greek philosophical term that would have been understood. Aristotle called it the unmoved mover.
Matt Brown:So, as they're talking about creation and everything that existed in Greek thought, there's this unmoved mover. So, there's something behind everything that started everything. And so, the the term logos is kind of it would almost mean the soul of the universe. Woah. So, right?
Matt Brown:So, modern day scientists, you know, talk about the universe like it's alive. So for the Greeks, the universe is not alive, but there's a soul that's alive within the universe. And so, John uses their language and their understanding and he says, hey, guys, you know the soul of the universe that you believe in? That you know then that unmoved mover that you talk about? Well, let me tell you who he is or what he was.
Matt Brown:So in the beginning, the unmoved mover, the logos, the soul of the universe, it already it already existed. Mhmm. So the soul of the universe existed before the universe. It didn't come it it didn't come to life when life came to life, but it preexist that. And it says, the word was with God and and here in the Greek it's, meaning face to face.
Matt Brown:So the bible says, no one can see God face to face and survive. So even Moses when he sees God face to face, he actually sees him with his back to Yeah. You know, to God and his face, you know, in in the cleft of a rock. So he doesn't actually see God face to face, but Moses knows God more intimately than any other human being in history. So Jesus, right, he doesn't have to shove his face in in a rock as God passes by, you know, with his glory.
Matt Brown:Jesus is eternally face to face with God. Mhmm. So the word was with God and listen to what he says. So how is it possible that the logos is is with God all the time? It says, because the logos is God.
Matt Brown:So the logos is Jesus Christ. So he's not gonna talk about the logos. He's gonna he's gonna start with the logos, something very very contemporary to to Greek thought, and then he's gonna talk about Jesus. He's gonna tell us. So you could translate it this way.
Matt Brown:In the beginning, Jesus already existed. Jesus was with God and Jesus was God. Jesus existed in the beginning with God and God created everything through Jesus and nothing was created except through Jesus. Okay. And so that's that's that's the most important passage, you know.
Matt Brown:And right there, the gospel of John, he starts off the opening monologue. He wants us to know Jesus is God. And it's indisputable. That's who he is. Anybody that doesn't translate it the way that I'm telling you to translate it, they they have an agenda.
Matt Brown:They have a theological agenda and they don't allow the text to say what it texts. So a Jehovah Witness will say, well, Jesus was a little God. And that's not what the Bible says. It doesn't say he's a little God. It says he he he was with God and he is God.
Matt Brown:Mhmm. So it's unfortunate. And like I said, don't pick on Jehovah Witnesses. We love them. And we man, in many ways, they're far more faithful than many Christians are.
Matt Brown:So so that's the number one passage.
Justin Pardee:Okay. Let's jump over to Philippians two. I love this one. And you're gonna talk about five verses five through 11.
Matt Brown:Yeah. Specifically. So, you know, here here's this is what's important about this passage is it's it's one of the oldest known passages of scripture. So how do we know it's old? Because it's a song.
Matt Brown:This is something that Christians probably would have sung or or or or written about or talked about, and the apostle Paul borrows from this idea or this song that's earlier than the letter. Okay. So he's not telling them something new. Got it. He's telling them something they know.
Matt Brown:And so he's talking about the fact that Jesus Christ is to be emulated by the Christian in all things. So he says, you must have the same attitude of Christ Jesus. Though he was God. See, Paul is is agreeing 100% with John. He says, though he was God, he did not think equality with God was something to cling to.
Matt Brown:So what's amazing about Jesus is he's completely divine, but he doesn't hold on to
Justin Pardee:it. Right.
Matt Brown:See, there's a releasing. So you think about clinging. We we cling to things, we cling to our money, we cling to our relationships, we we we cling to our friendships. Jesus didn't cling to God, but he he let go. So he did not consider equality with God something to hold on to.
Matt Brown:Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. So he gave up his privileges and he took on the humble position of his slave. And he was born as a human being, and then he appeared in human form.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm.
Matt Brown:So Jesus Christ is fully a man, but that's not how that's not who he's always been. He became a man in Bethlehem at that first Christmas, but he had always been God. Can I
Stephanie Schaefer:ask a clarify question there? So when he you're saying that he gave up his divine privileges, became man. How does that then work with obviously, he still has divine power and that he's able
Justin Pardee:to heal people's minds and stuff.
Matt Brown:Well, he he has some abilities, but Jesus has limited even those. So this is the way that I look at it like, I mean, this illustration doesn't work perfectly because my son is quickly becoming more physically able than I. But like say a couple years ago when he's little, let's say my son and I enter into a three legged race. I was a track athlete in high school and in college, very very good runner. You guys know I've done Ironmans, but we enter into the three legged race together.
Matt Brown:It doesn't matter how fast I can run. What matters is how fast can Ethan run. Right. And so in the race, I am limited to his ability. Mhmm.
Matt Brown:So Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter who he is as God. What matters when he becomes a human being is he limits himself to the full capability of human beings. So Jesus, right, can do way more than we can, but he's still limited because he's entered into the human race in a three legged race. And so now, he doesn't know everything. He knows a lot.
Matt Brown:He he, you know, he he doesn't know when the end is gonna come. He talks about the that's for the father to determine and there's just things that he doesn't know. And he seems surprised by some things, overwhelmed by some things. So he's entering into a genuine human experience. But what Jesus is showing us is not everything that God can do.
Matt Brown:Here's the thing that's freaky. Jesus is showing us everything we can do. Yeah. Mhmm. So I mean, gosh, you wanna feel like a failure, look at Jesus, you know, it's just like, wow.
Matt Brown:Okay. These and again, that's why when I say as people, we're not judged based upon mother Teresa's standard or Muhammad Gandhi's standard. We're judged according to Jesus's standard because he's revealing human potential. But even that doesn't even comprehend what he's capable of. And so he appeared as a human being, because remember, Jesus Christ has to mend the relationship, the broken relationship between God and men.
Matt Brown:So how does he do that? He perfectly represents both parties. He understands exactly what God's righteousness is like, and he understands exactly what human nature is like. And somehow, he lives the human life perfectly. He's tempted in every way that we are.
Matt Brown:Okay. He cried, he got tired, he got hungry. He even got angry, but he did all of that without sin. Absolutely amazing. So Jesus Christ gave up his position as God, as the king of kings and lord of lords and he emptied himself.
Matt Brown:But listen to what he says. It says, he appeared in human form and he humbled himself in obedience to God and he died a criminal's death on a cross. I mean, the angels must be pulling their hair out. Right? Here's the king of kings and lord of lords dying a criminal's death on a cross.
Matt Brown:Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and he gave him the name above all other names. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on on earth and under earth and every tongue should declare that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of God the father. Here's what's amazing. We are not to worship anyone but God. Mhmm.
Matt Brown:And yet this passage says we are to worship Jesus.
Stephanie Schaefer:Right.
Matt Brown:Not only are we to worship Jesus, but everyone in heaven will worship Jesus and everyone in hell. Because when we glorify Jesus, when we worship Jesus, ultimately, we're glorifying the father, we're glorifying God. And so, don't know exactly how that works, but it's amazing. And so we can't worship Jesus if he's anything but God. Because by definition, now, we've committed heresy.
Matt Brown:There's only one God. And Paul is making the case here, think rather clearly that Jesus is God.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm. Hopefully, doesn't freak you out, man. But I remember you preached a sermon about this like ten years ago, and just that concept that throw of that three legged race was super important for me in terms of thinking through like, what do I want out of my own life? Like, what do what do I want to to be and aspire to and even pursue? And I think it was so profound that thing when you just said like, he's he's revealing like our potential.
Justin Pardee:I think that's so great in terms of really trying to think through like resetting our expectations and all those things. Because at least for me, I think a lot of us like we grow up and maybe our moms or our dads if they're really great parents have these super high expectations for us. But then as as we get out into the real world, you know, we start picking up these things and we just kind of even just let go of a lot of those expectations and I love the idea of coming back especially as we're going to be in Luke for many more months and looking at all the different things that Jesus is doing and is saying and is Yeah. Even encouraging his own followers to try and do Right. In his name and saying, man, I wanna aspire toward that.
Matt Brown:Yeah. And he tells his disciples, you will do greater things than Right.
Justin Pardee:Exactly.
Matt Brown:Because he's what he's showing is our potential. And so we all need to think about that. I mean, Paul would later say, I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. And we need to think about that, that we can do far more than we think we can. We are far more able than we know.
Matt Brown:You know, one of my favorite I know this is supposed to be about Jesus, but my favorite passages is after the fall in Genesis three, God has to put a flaming or an angel with a sword in front of the Garden Eden, you know, to to keep Adam and Eve from going back. Mhmm. Well, why is that? Because Adam and Eve were awesome. I mean, they were strong and powerful and God had to put one of his most powerful heavenly beings to keep them out.
Matt Brown:That's that's who they were. And so, you know you know, science tells us that we're evolving, but the truth is we're probably de evolving, you know. The Egyptians and those guys could do things that we can't even comprehend. We've lost so much intelligence over the year, even though we've gained so much technology. We have no idea the potential that human beings have.
Justin Pardee:This is legit. Okay. Let's keep going through these passages. The next chunk, and this is this is a big one, is in Colossians chapter one. You highlighted verses 15 through 20.
Justin Pardee:Can we talk about those a little
Matt Brown:Yeah. Absolutely. So again, so these are the top five passages that every Christian needs to pray through and wrestle. You know, if you wanna know why we believe that Jesus Christ is God, these are the passages that you need to go through. So in Colossians one fifteen through 20, so he's writing a letter to the church at Colossi, and he is writing them these words.
Matt Brown:He says, this is who Jesus Christ is. He says, Jesus Christ, this is verse 15.
Justin Pardee:15.
Matt Brown:Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. Right? So do you wanna know what God looks like? Look at Jesus. This is who Jesus is.
Matt Brown:Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. So, we can't see God, but we can see Jesus. Why? So that we can see God. It's absolutely amazing.
Matt Brown:So, who is Jesus? He says Jesus existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realm realms realms realms realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
Matt Brown:He existed before anything else and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church which is his body. He is the beginning, the supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all of his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.
Matt Brown:And through him, God reconciled everything to himself and he made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. I mean, it's just absolutely amazing. I mean, this you you could spend a year of your life just meditating on this passage Yeah, totally. Of who Christ is. And so, you know, there's a couple things that, you know, we need to just that just jump at us.
Matt Brown:So Christ is the visible image of the invisible. We can't see God, but we can see Jesus. Jesus Christ created everything. So we when you read Genesis one and two, and God's doing all of this creation, now we know who that was. His name is Jesus and he's making all of this stuff.
Matt Brown:And so when we see that that that Jesus, right, he he took the clay of the earth and he molded Adam in his hands. That's Jesus that did that and it's absolutely amazing. But he didn't just make Adam and Eve, he made the garden, he made the earth, he made the heavens, he put the stars where they are. He did all of that. And not only did he create it, but he holds it together.
Matt Brown:I mean, Jesus even if you don't believe in Jesus, he's holding your life together. I mean, as we speak, people who deny him and who reject him, he's holding their very existence together. He's telling the atoms of their bodies to stay together. It they're being obedient to his word and and to his truth. And I just think that's absolutely incredible.
Matt Brown:What I love about this passage is it just gives us a galactic sort of feel to salvation.
Justin Pardee:A lot
Matt Brown:of us think about what Jesus Christ did for me, but this passage speaks to what Jesus Christ did for all creation, the heavens and the earth, man. You know, if there are aliens and e t is real, e t is saved because of what Jesus Christ did on the All creation is saved by Jesus and it's absolutely absolutely amazing.
Justin Pardee:I don't even know how to keep going process all that because, yes, that's that's really intense. Do Can we keep marching through
Matt Brown:these Yeah.
Justin Pardee:Passages? Because this next one I love from Titus chapter two verse 13 you you brought out. While we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ will be revealed. What's going on there?
Matt Brown:Yeah. So this is right. Just a small sentence that has huge theological impact. And so Okay. One of the things that, you know, the Greek language has is rules.
Matt Brown:Just like, you know, English has rules, I before you except ever see. So in Greek, there's a rule called the Granville Sharp Rule. And this guy named Granville who came up with this rule as any noticed it in Greek that whenever you have a specific noun with the article before it, so like the word the before it, and it's not attached to the second noun, and it's separated by the word in English. I know I'm like talking crazy, but it's separated by the English word and which in Greek is kai, k a I. Okay.
Matt Brown:What that means is you're talking about the same person. So, example, this rule helps us understand when Jesus says, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So because of that rule, we know that Jesus isn't talking about the god of Abraham, one god, the god of Isaac, two gods, the god of Jacob, three gods. That rule helps us understand that we're talking about one god of three individuals. And so here that rule helps us
Justin Pardee:So if I'm if I say the taste of peanut butter and jelly, I am talking about their delicious flavors combined Yes. Inside of a tasty sandwich?
Matt Brown:I don't know that any Greek scholar has ever used that as an example, but I'm gonna go with that.
Stephanie Schaefer:I'm gonna call
Matt Brown:that the I'm gonna call that the Justin Justin party party rule. Is that okay? Hold on. So and and here's why it's important, because the Jehovah Witnesses will tell you that what what's being said here is that we're gonna look forward to the day when God, our great God, and our great savior Jesus Christ will will be revealed. And the problem with that is the whole context of the passage is all about what Jesus Christ did, and all about how Jesus Christ suffered on the cross.
Matt Brown:Hey, God didn't die on the cross. God the father didn't. Jesus did. We're not awaiting the return of God the father, or awaiting the return of Jesus Christ. And so the whole passage is really cemented together here in two thirteen.
Matt Brown:We look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ will be revealed. So Jesus for Paul is so clearly both our savior and our God. It's just like Thomas when he puts his hands in the holes in he touches the holes in Jesus' hands, he puts his hand in the hole of Jesus' side, he exclaims, my Lord and my God. It's both, you are both. He's not saying, oh my God and Jesus, you're my Lord.
Matt Brown:He's saying, you are both. And so it's just really really important that we know this verse is also repeated. This exact structure is repeated in second Peter one one. It says exactly the same thing. We look forward to the appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.
Matt Brown:So Peter uses his language and Paul uses his language because they both believed he's God.
Justin Pardee:Alright. Well, we have made it all the way to number one and or number five. Yeah. Depending on how you're ordering this. Let's hit up Hebrews one
Matt Brown:verses one through three. Yeah. And so, would just say this again, if you have a Jehovah Witness friend that believes that Jesus Christ is an angel, you just you need to go no further than Hebrews chapter one. Because the whole point of Hebrews chapter one is he's no angel.
Justin Pardee:Okay.
Matt Brown:That he's greater than that. So, says this, long ago, God spoke many times in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son. God promised everything to the son as an inheritance and through the son he created the universe. The sun radiates God's own glory.
Matt Brown:So let me just go there. The sun radiates God's own glory.
Justin Pardee:That kind of reminds me of the transfiguration.
Matt Brown:Yeah. Exactly. So for example, when when you go out and get a suntan, how how do you get a suntan? You get a suntan from the radiation that's pouring forth from the sun. Just like our solar panels, a lot of people think, oh, it's just no.
Matt Brown:What what the solar panel is catching is it's actually catching radiation particles. Little pieces of the sun that have been launched out from the sun to earth. K? So you can't separate
Stephanie Schaefer:So my science brain is like, what?
Justin Pardee:Yeah. I just realized, I mean, I need to get solar panels just to protect That's my house from pretty. Yeah. Little tiny mini comets or something.
Matt Brown:Well, mean, that's what it is. It's not light. It's particles. It's actual particles of the sun that have been launched out a bazillion miles an hour towards earth. I mean, it's little pieces of flame and energy and your solar panels are catching that and turning it into energy.
Matt Brown:So in the same way you
Justin Pardee:can't You can't separate. Separate
Matt Brown:I'm just You know, you can't separate sunshine from the sun. Right. You can't because the sunshine is from the sun. In the same way, you can't separate Jesus Christ from God because Jesus Christ is as sunshine is to the sun. So it says, now in these final days, he has spoken us through his son who is what?
Matt Brown:The sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. And he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. And when he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. Mhmm. And so, Jesus Christ is God's son.
Matt Brown:And so, know, if this is blowing your mind, you just need to think about Jesus this way. If I introduced you to my son, I said, this is my son Ethan. You would never think my son is an alien. You wouldn't think that he's an animal. You would assume that he's a human being.
Matt Brown:Mhmm. Because he's my son. And that's the point the gospels are trying to make. When Jesus is referred to as God's son Mhmm. He shares a unique relationship with the father.
Matt Brown:Why? Because my just as my son is a human being. Jesus Christ as God's son is a divine being. He is God Almighty. And so what was so offensive to the Jews, no human being in the history of the world ever referred to God in the way that Jesus does.
Matt Brown:They thought, how dare you? How dare you call Jesus your father? Jesus, when he prayed, when he talked, when he healed, when he touched, he assumed a unique relationship with God that not even Moses had. And that's what Hebrews one is talking about. Not even King David had.
Matt Brown:Not even Solomon, all of his wisdom had. Not Elijah, not Elisha, not Jeremiah, not Ezekiel, not Daniel. None of these guys shared the unique relationship that Jesus Christ had with God the Father. And what's amazing is, not only does Jesus have that relationship with God, but he shares it with us. Mhmm.
Matt Brown:So when we become, you know, born again Christians, right, The Bible says that when we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that he gives us his spirit in us that cries out Abba. Abba. And so Jesus, only does he have a unique relationship with God the Father, but he shares it with those who place their face, faith and trust in him. And so, I would just say this, some of you are gonna feel overwhelmed, you're gonna feel, oh my gosh, this is way too beyond me. But if you're a born again believer, God has placed his spirit in your life.
Matt Brown:And I just wanna talk just real quickly about why I'm referring to Romans eight, actually. Romans eight is he's placed his spirit in our hearts that cries out Abba. And this is why it's so important. A lot of us think that, you know, oh, that's gotta be so deeply theological and powerful. No, the word Abba is like our English word dada.
Matt Brown:And so it's primal. It's the first words that an infant can utter when understanding God. And so what I love about that is when we have God's spirit in our hearts, we don't want God for something. Like when a little kid, like when your sons or your daughter says, dada, dada, they don't want anything but you. They don't want what you provide, they don't want what you can give.
Matt Brown:Right? We learn that as we get older. Hey, dad, can I have? But when you're little, your first words are just dada. And what are you saying?
Matt Brown:I want you, dad. Yeah. And so God has placed his spirit in our hearts. And so I just would say this is, you might be theologically intimidated by these passages, study these passages, pray over these passages and just say, you know, dad, I want you, I wanna know you, I wanna love you. And and I wanna know your son, Jesus Christ, who's made all of this possible.
Matt Brown:Because without Jesus Christ, we are eternally separated from God. And we can't You know, a lot of people like to say, well, we're all God's children. Well, that's not what the Bible says.
Justin Pardee:We
Matt Brown:are all God's creation. Those who are followers of Jesus are his children. Because we alone have the spirit of God that cries out Abba, daddy. That's what we need to do. And so my hope is that, you know, people that are listening would be able to turn to, you know, John one, Hebrews, Colossians, Philippians, you know, Titus two thirteen, I'm forgetting one.
Justin Pardee:Yep. Here, I was gonna gonna say, yeah. So John chapter one one through four, Philippians two five through 11, Colossians one fifteen through 20, Titus two thirteen, and then Hebrews one one through three.
Matt Brown:Yeah. And and there and and guys, we haven't even talked on the miracles that Jesus did and the power that he assumes. And we're Right. Just like you know, in this week's message, the the feeding of the 5,000. What's that about?
Justin Pardee:Yeah. Where did that come from?
Stephanie Schaefer:I'm just
Matt Brown:gonna pray over food and manifest, you know, enough food to feed 25,000 people. I mean, who does that? God does that. Just like in the old testament, right, God brought manna from heaven, Jesus brings it out of a basket. It's absolutely amazing.
Matt Brown:And there's something powerful that's happening there. Right? They had they had more than enough that was left over. I mean, it it was it's just it's just powerful, you know. And that's why he says, who do you say that I am?
Matt Brown:And so that's why every person listening to podcast is you need to get to the place where you can answer that question, who do you say that I am? And I I've given you the biblical evidence that he is the son of God. But every person listening has to make the decision for themselves. Right. My opinion doesn't matter, theirs does.
Matt Brown:They've got to decide. And so, Luke has written us this gospel, not so that we can base our opinion on, well, I think, but so that we can base it on truth. So, we have the facts. So, Theophilus that he's writing the book of Luke to and the book of Acts can make the right decision based upon the truth. So he can choose to believe or reject Jesus based upon the truth.
Justin Pardee:I love it. Here's what I'm guessing, a bunch of you guys have some questions possibly that came up out of this, and you know what we like to do here, get them in front of pastor Matt's face. So reach out to your community group leader if you have some some stuff that came up from this and they will get your question directly to us. Stephanie and I will bring it to Pastor Matt here and we'll be back next week with some more great questions and all those kinds of things. Thanks for joining us guys.
Justin Pardee:We're gonna jump over and do some we're gonna sit down with your wife, man.
Matt Brown:Alright, man.
Justin Pardee:Very excited.
Matt Brown:Be nice to her.
Justin Pardee:Sounds good.
Matt Brown:Alright. Thanks guys for listening. Love you.
Justin Pardee:Well, guys, I am super excited. We have Pastor Matt's wife, Tammy Brown on the show today. What's up, Tammy?
Stephanie Schaefer:Hey, everybody.
Justin Pardee:We are excited to have you on here because you are kind of the architect of Cultivate Women here at Sandals Church and this is a big week for you guys in Cultivate. Right? Your website launched yesterday, the new website and blog.
Stephanie Schaefer:Yeah. It's it's a big week for us because it's a project we've had, a vision for
Matt Brown:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:For about a year now, and it's a lot of work by people, not me, because I don't know how to build a website. So the fact that it's all, ideas that I've had in my heart for a year kind of coming to fruition is really really great.
Justin Pardee:Super cool. Well, I think, especially the ladies that are listening should go check it out. It's at www.cultivate.sc. And one of the cool things that's on there is this blog with even just stories and stuff from the ladies of our church.
Stephanie Schaefer:Yeah. The the blog is actually, my favorite part of what our website will offer. The website in itself will be a great resource for women because we're multiple campuses, but one church.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:For the women to know what's happening for Sandals Church Yeah. Regardless of what campus, you can go there, find out when the studies we're having are, what's going on. We're gonna have some presents on each campus on a weekly basis.
Justin Pardee:Actual presents like gifts?
Stephanie Schaefer:No. Like a a physical
Justin Pardee:Oh, okay.
Stephanie Schaefer:Got it. Relationship.
Justin Pardee:I got really excited for a second because I was like, candles There's gonna be cool names.
Stephanie Schaefer:There's there is candles and merchandise that you can buy as presents every weekend at each campus. But you can find those things out on the website.
Justin Pardee:Oh, cool.
Stephanie Schaefer:But what I'm most excited about is the blog because part of what I really wanted for women in Cultivate with this blog is, hey, here's my real story. Here's something I really went through. Mhmm.
Justin Pardee:Here's how
Stephanie Schaefer:I got through it. Here's how I had to be real with myself, real with God, real with others. Right. Here's what worked for me. Maybe you could try this.
Stephanie Schaefer:Here's what didn't work.
Matt Brown:Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:Don't do this. Yeah. And it's real women, real life, real experiences for other women to glean from. And and and eventually, what will happen is any woman out there, either from Sandals or you could refer a friend to the blog to say, hey, I know you're really struggling with loneliness.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:And you'll be able to go there and hit, you know, the search for loneliness, and you'll get real women's stories of how they struggle with loneliness and how God met them there, or forgiveness, or bitterness, or envy, or body image, or all of these things that women go through. You'll just be able to search that, and there'll be real stories of how God met them there. Mhmm. Scriptures to go with that to encourage women. I just think it's gonna be potentially a really fantastic resource to meet women where they are from other women.
Justin Pardee:Super cool. And then, can you just tell me simply because I know that cultivated is this thing. What is what's like Really? What is
Stephanie Schaefer:your what's the vision? Big deal.
Justin Pardee:Yeah. Exactly. So what what's the overall vision there of it's like, are you trying to connect the women of sandals? What's it about?
Stephanie Schaefer:I do wanna connect the women of sandals for sure, which is a little bit tricky. I love what God's done in our church, and but there are hundreds and hundreds of women. So anytime we try to Thousands do something of literally. Every time we try to do something to connect at this point could be its own mini conference. Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:So I have to be really strategic on how I can connect, with the women. The vision, though, is beyond connecting. It's really to a couple things. What I want Cultivate to do is to be a place where women not just study and know God's word. There's a lot of women's ministries out there, a lot of bible studies where there's a lot of emphasis on the memorizing and the studying, and and that's fantastic.
Stephanie Schaefer:We do need to do that as women. Mhmm. What I want and what why we're called Cultivate is because I want the women who are coming to Sandals, anything that we're doing, to not just study God's word, not just memorize God's word, but go, oh, I read this. Now there's no turning back.
Justin Pardee:Okay. Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:So I read this. I can't pretend I don't know what God wants from me now. Yeah. So I need to cultivate it in how I treat my friend, how I forgive others, how I love my neighbor, how I love my enemy Mhmm. How I love myself Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:How I live my everyday life. Like, there has to be a marriage between God's word and how we're actually behaving, and I really see a huge void in Christianity in that Right. In particular. So when I started Cultivate, I I really sat down and started thinking, what would a study look like that I actually want to attend? Yeah.
Stephanie Schaefer:I have three kids. I'm co pastoring this church with Matt.
Matt Brown:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:I have I could try to spend all of my time loving on our staff and staff wives, and that would be a full time job.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:Totally. So how how do I want what what would I wanna spend those last few hours that maybe I have free doing? What would it look like that I actually wanna go to?
Justin Pardee:Yeah. Totally.
Stephanie Schaefer:And that gave me a lot of creative freedom to say, in those few hours that I might have free that I could be doing laundry or just laying on my couch doing nothing.
Stephanie Schaefer:Yep.
Stephanie Schaefer:What is gonna be worth that time that I have? Because women have a lot going on.
Matt Brown:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:And so what I want to do is I wanna have a safe space. Now when it comes to cultivate, let's talk about safe space because that's where the vision of kindness came in.
Justin Pardee:Okay. Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:It's it's a real fine line with women, the love hate line.
Justin Pardee:Okay.
Stephanie Schaefer:We I think God put in us this love for each other. Matt will tease me so often because he's like, you you love your girlfriends. Like, you always wanna be together. What about me? And I just think women love girlfriends.
Stephanie Schaefer:They're very important to us, those relationships, those connections, the gift of gab and just wanting to talk and tell everything and Right. Compliment each other. And we have that. And yet so women, we desire it, but they're also some of our most unsafe and Mhmm. Deepest wounds wounded relationships.
Stephanie Schaefer:And even for myself stepping into leading women's ministry, I had a real hesitancy and had to ask God, like, do I not even like women? Do Oh, wow. Yeah. Why don't I wanna do this? Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:The same time, thinking of that I was raising two teenage daughters at that time, and and just hearing myself give my daughter's advice on, I know she's mean, girls are just mean, that's just the way it is. You just have to learn how to navigate that.
Stephanie Schaefer:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:And feeling such a deep conviction from God of, but my girls aren't supposed to be mean. Mhmm. That's the way the world does it. That's not the way we do it. So I want for women to create a safe space where exceptional kindness is kind of the standard.
Justin Pardee:I love that.
Stephanie Schaefer:And what happens or what I've been seeing happen is that women want to come be a part of a safe kind environment, but they're not really bringing in the door. Oh, that means I also have to bring my kindness.
Justin Pardee:Right. Okay.
Stephanie Schaefer:So what's been really amazing is to see that from the first time we did something almost two years ago till now, where people are like, it's not just about me being in a place that's kind, but if I'm part of that environment, I also have to be kind. Mhmm. So I want women to have a safe place carved out, where kindness is kind of the expectation.
Justin Pardee:Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.
Stephanie Schaefer:Because that's what we wanna receive from one another. Right? Right. In that time, what do I wanna do? I wanna read and study God's word.
Stephanie Schaefer:Mhmm. And I wanna have time in the moment to say, what does this mean for me? Mhmm. I've been to so many conferences, so many Bible studies over the last twenty years in ministry where it's like, here's all of this information.
Justin Pardee:Yeah.
Stephanie Schaefer:Go home, figure out. Well, the truth is the second I leave, it's like carpool. Ethan doesn't have a science project done. We need to study for spelling tests. I don't have groceries, laundries.
Stephanie Schaefer:Like, whatever I needed to figure out is long gone. Mhmm. I want Cultivate to be a place where in the moment, we're like, okay. So we're talking about, for example, forgiveness. Who do I need to forgive?
Justin Pardee:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:And I'm gonna take five minutes, ten minutes right now to to figure that out. Because the truth is I know. I know who I need to forgive. I know who I'm holding bitterness against. Write those names down.
Stephanie Schaefer:Okay. Now, what's gonna be the strategy to do that? What is that gonna look like in the moment so that when I leave whatever time that is, I had time and space where my phone's not ringing, the kids aren't bothering me, Matt's not bothering me, where it's just my moment, me and God, God's word, and me saying, now that I read this word, what does it mean for my life?
Justin Pardee:Right. Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:In an environment of women being kind. So I I want the women to receive soul care there and spiritual direction. What does it mean for me to live out being real with myself, with God, with others?
Justin Pardee:Totally.
Stephanie Schaefer:And just hearing and studying the word like a lot of studies do, you know, we've been real criticized on, why aren't we doing this in particular bible study or this in particular Okay. Bible study, this kind of national Right. Situations happening out there. Yeah. And, which they're all really great, but I never want us to be about just studying God's word.
Stephanie Schaefer:I always wanna be about how do we cultivate it into our everyday life, friendship, marriage, situation, parenting, even our thought life. Like, even with this vision of kindness, it has really shaped me. Mhmm. Like, this week on the blog, if you go there, the first post is one I wrote that says, I don't even know if I believe in the idea of exceptional kindness among women, but I really Yeah. Want You know, I really want to.
Stephanie Schaefer:And how it shaped me is I'm starting to just in my inner monologue go, oh, I I really don't like this person. Spoiler alert, I don't like some people, and I'm still a pastor's wife. But I don't. But so what does it look like for me to be kind to them? Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:Like, it is shaping me, like, okay, that doesn't mean I I don't wanna spend time with them.
Stephanie Schaefer:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:I don't trust them. They're not safe to me. I need some space. So what does kindness look like to that Because we all have people that we don't really wanna cozy up to and be best friends with, but we can still and we're still called to be kind. So it's things like, you know what my way of being kindness is?
Stephanie Schaefer:It's I'm not gonna talk about them to this other friend.
Justin Pardee:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:That's my act of kindness to them. I can still show kindness to unkind people or people that I don't necessarily feel great about. So the vision of kindness is even shaping me in asking myself, what does kindness look like in this situation where you've hurt me, where you've wounded me, where you frustrated me, where you didn't meet my expectation, what does it look like to be kind? And that's been a real interesting journey for me. Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:And I hope that women will go along with that too of just shaping it because, am I talking too much?
Justin Pardee:This is great, I'm actually taking notes so that I can apply this to my relationship with Lindy.
Stephanie Schaefer:Okay. Good.
Justin Pardee:And, hopefully, go home and things will be great.
Stephanie Schaefer:It will be. If you'd be really kind,
Matt Brown:it will be.
Justin Pardee:Okay. Sounds good.
Stephanie Schaefer:You know, we talked about that this this week is Matt and I's twentieth anniversary, and I joke like, we've been married twenty years and we've had like 10. Uh-huh.
Justin Pardee:Okay. Fair enough.
Stephanie Schaefer:But you know what? That guy, he he has truly learned how to be kind to me.
Justin Pardee:That's awesome. Can you tell me about this conference that's coming up? Because that seems like Mhmm. It's basically gonna just be like this pinnacle experience for everything you've just been telling me about.
Stephanie Schaefer:I I really hope so. It's the first time we've done a conference to this kind of scale here and the first time for women. It's gonna be a two day conference, May twentieth and twenty first here on our main campus, Friday night, all day Saturday. I'm bringing in, a speaker. Her name is Lisa Bevere.
Stephanie Schaefer:She's written several books, and she speaks all over the globe. She's really incredible, and she was super formative for me even stepping into the role of leading Cultivate when I I saw her at a conference, and I didn't wanna go to the pastor's wife gathering because I thought, oh, I don't wanna go be in a room with a bunch of women Okay. Interestingly enough. And I left it with a heart for women. And I really credit that to her Wow.
Stephanie Schaefer:And her vision. So I'm so excited. The thing is that I was so excited to book her to come until it to me that I actually have to meet her now. So I'm a little nervous to meet her and not be like totally like fanning out over her That's awesome. And like I'm 13 year old, but I'm gonna try it really hard to pretend to
Justin Pardee:be. That's awesome. Well, you're gonna be sharing the same stage too. Right, girl?
Stephanie Schaefer:I am, which I'm also really kind of losing my mind about.
Justin Pardee:Dude, that's gonna be awesome.
Stephanie Schaefer:So I'm really excited about that. We're bringing in another speaker. She's a young lady named Audrey Roloff.
Justin Pardee:Okay.
Stephanie Schaefer:And the reason I was so attracted to Audrey to have her come is she's a pretty well known blogger, and she's a young married. But what I love about Audrey is she lives so intentionally about her life. I I started I saw her wedding, on TV. She's part of a reality show, and I saw her wedding, and I just I loved her vows, and then I started kind of
Justin Pardee:Mhmm.
Stephanie Schaefer:Just stalking her. And what I want for our young girls because this conference is also for teenagers. So Mhmm. You know, when it comes to women, I feel like a lot of the issues that I help women with as adults, if we could deal with the some of this stuff with our young girls, when we're growing into women, we we wouldn't be half the messes that we are.
Justin Pardee:Right. That's right.
Stephanie Schaefer:Some of these identity and jealousy and competitiveness and all of those things. So what what I want for our young girls is to be a part of Cultivate and to start getting some of these truths that the rest of us in our thirties, forties, and older are still trying to figure out. But for myself, having two teenage girls, I want them to have other ideas of what you can look like to be beautiful and successful that's not a Kardashian.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:And I just feel like the world is like, you have to look like this, dress like this, be about this. So I came across Audrey, and what I really loved about her is she's another way. She's beautiful. She's very, outgoing and adventurous and confident. And what's interesting is I I flew up to see her, and I took my daughter Kennedy, who had no idea about her and could have cared less.
Stephanie Schaefer:Kennedy was like, you're right, mom.
Justin Pardee:I
Stephanie Schaefer:I wanna be like her. Oh, that's so cool. And so I just want to put some other options in front of our young girls because I feel like all they're bombarded with what is role models that are not God's best for them.
Justin Pardee:Right.
Stephanie Schaefer:So teenage girls get to come to it, 13 to 18
Justin Pardee:So cool.
Stephanie Schaefer:Every other age. It's in May. Did I ever say that? Yep.
Justin Pardee:May 2021. Yeah. Super cool. And here's what's awesome. Right now is early bird pricing.
Justin Pardee:So if anybody Yes. Registers for the website or registers on the website
Stephanie Schaefer:On the website.
Justin Pardee:You go to cultivate.sc, click the button that says conference. And, if you register, here's I've got the promo code for you guys. It is SCKind16. So s c like sandals church Mhmm. Kind16.
Justin Pardee:And, that'll get you $10 off. The tickets are $50. For adults, $40 if you're a teenager though.
Stephanie Schaefer:Mhmm.
Justin Pardee:Either way, you get a $10 discount by using that code
Stephanie Schaefer:anytime Only during March. Yeah. Only during March. And what what are and that includes a lunch. And for the first 100 plus teens that sign up, Audrey's actually hosting a special luncheon for just those girls that is just gonna talk about how do you navigate those years without completely losing your mind and still having your identity.
Stephanie Schaefer:So, I would just say to moms, have your teenage daughters there. Invite your nieces. Invite your neighbors. Invite every teenage girl that you can to be at this conference and be a part of that. So Awesome.
Stephanie Schaefer:It's gonna be fantastic.
Justin Pardee:Well, super cool. Well, thank you for coming on Yeah. The debrief here. We're super grad super super grad. We're super I don't even know what
Stephanie Schaefer:it Great. Cool.
Justin Pardee:Yeah. There you go. We're super stoked that you came on here. Congratulations on
Stephanie Schaefer:Thanks having me.
Justin Pardee:Twenty years of marriage too, by way.
Stephanie Schaefer:That's I know. We're we're pretty excited. That's a long time in today's world.
Justin Pardee:So true. Well, very cool. Everybody else It's
Stephanie Schaefer:my birthday.
Justin Pardee:Oh, for this week as well? Mhmm. Oh, man.
Stephanie Schaefer:It's birthiversary week.
Justin Pardee:That that is awesome. I have birthday, Mother's Day, and anniversary all in one month. But at least I get to spread them out a little bit.
Stephanie Schaefer:Yeah. Matt has Matt has a big big
Justin Pardee:Big commitment on one week.
Stephanie Schaefer:Commitment and it's all in one time.
Justin Pardee:Then I feel like that's probably better for a husband though because It worked
Stephanie Schaefer:out good.
Justin Pardee:It is. Yeah. Exactly. Doomsday is coming. This one week.
Stephanie Schaefer:Mixes the two. Birthday's birthday, anniversary's anniversary. It's not one and he's he's he does really well at that.
Justin Pardee:Well, shout out to pastor Matt. Well, awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Stephanie Schaefer:So much.
Justin Pardee:Great great week. Alright, everybody.
Stephanie Schaefer:Sign up for our conference.
Justin Pardee:Exactly. Go to cultivate.sc/conference. Ladies, everybody else, have a awesome week. We'll see you right back here next week for what's probably gonna be episode 19.