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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
Can I pray for you?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, of course.
Tammy Brown:Alright. God, I just lift up Matt to you
Tammy Brown:as he prepares to bring the Easter message.
Tammy Brown:God, I just know that every word he speaks out loud to others is an outpouring of his personal time with you. I pray that you remove fear, anxiety, anything he's feeling, God, in his own flesh. I pray that everybody who hears this Easter message knows that they are loved by you and understands the sacrifice and the lengths that you are willing to go to reach them. I lift up Matt as he is the vessel to bring the word, God. I just pray all these things in your name.
Tammy Brown:Amen. Okay. You ready?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If I could just sit down with you alone and just ask you, what's the first word that comes to you when you think about Easter? I mean, I imagine you have all kinds of memories as a kid, Easter egg hunts, a scary rabbit, either white or brown.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You have all kinds of thoughts, your creepy uncle's house or your grandma's house that smelled. I'm not sure exactly what you would think of. But most of us, we don't think of the word love, right? Love is something that we say for Valentine's Day. It's something that we say for engagements, dates.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But the reality is Easter is a story of love. It is the culmination of everything in this book. It is the story of God's love for you. It's the story of how he made you, how you fell far away from him from sin, and how he has rescued you because of his love. And all of that culminates on Easter weekend.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The death of Jesus for you, the resurrection of Jesus which is hope for you and for me, that death does not have the last say. But Jesus has more to say about love than any other person in human history. How many of you guys are messing around with AI? Is anybody messing around with it? Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm starting to like figure it out. It's creeping me out because I don't know when it's listening and when it's not. Couple of times this week AI has said, good point Matt, as I'm talking this sermon to myself. I just was like, woah. And I tell it to stop listening but it doesn't.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I asked Grock, that's the system that I use. I asked Grock, I said, how many things have been written about love? That's an amazing question for a supercomputer, right? Because some of you have never even been to a library, you're like, books? I don't know what those are.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I asked a supercomputer how many things have been written about love. Here's what Grock said, I don't know. Wow. My best guess is millions. Maybe you could be more specific on the exact subject of love and I could help you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Grock says, I don't know. There's just all this information out there about about love. And if you're an older person, no wonder young people are so confused about love. Because there's this avalanche of information saying love this, love that, don't that is not love, that's hate. And Jesus is gonna speak to us today about what love is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So if you have your Bibles with you, I want you to open to Matthew chapter five. We're gonna just cover a few verses today. And it's okay if you're a guest today and you don't have your Bible. All of the verses will be right behind me or on the screen if you're watching from a campus or on home and online. We want you to know what Jesus has to say about love.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I gotta tell you, if you're new to Jesus, he is just gonna deck you with what he has to say about love and he's not gonna stop because he is the author of love. And all of our love, no matter how powerful, how real it feels falls so short of what God's love really is. So let's take a look at Matthew chapter five and let's start in verse 43. Jesus says, speaking of the avalanche of information on love. He says, you've heard that it was said.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? There's all these rumors, all these stories, all these ideas about love. He said, you've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now we need to pause here and just say that's not what the bible says but that's what people heard. And let me just say this for everybody who's about ready to get offended, there's what I say and there's what you hear.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I get an amen? Amen. Amen. Remember that married men. Remember that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's what you say and then there's what was heard. That may save your life one day. So people were misquoting scripture in the day and age of Jesus. They were actually believing that it said something it didn't say. That's not what the bible says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They were misquoting it and Jesus is clarifying it. So you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. That's not what the bible says. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Wow. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good. He sends the rain even on us in California. Can I get an amen? We're gonna get a little rain.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He sends the rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, Jesus says, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. Anybody pay taxes this week? You wanna feel unloved, call the IRS.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Now what he means there is people who don't know God. He says, you therefore, look at this, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down, especially if you're a young person, you wanna get married one day, you wanna fall in love one day. Jesus clarifies what love is really about. K? It's not something that you fall in. Amen, married couples?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's something that you do. Love is a verb. It's something that you work towards. And so Jesus says in Matthew five forty three that you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Jesus cuts right through millions of opinions on love, and he clarifies it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now how many of you, come on, let's be honest, would say you're a loving person? It's okay to raise your hands. Like, half of the people in the studio, the rest of you, I'm the hater. I'm the hater. K.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Most of us, let's be honest, we consider ourselves loving people. Like moms, if you lose it on your kids in Target, did the best you could. Amen? Somebody else loses their mind on their kid in Target, that's abuse. That's abuse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So most of us consider ourselves loving people. We we just do. We critique the love of others, but we consider ourselves pretty loving. So let's let's talk about loving people. Let's start with a decent person.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? This is someone that's almost human. Amen? A decent person, listen to me, loves and cares for themselves. Now I'm not saying that is a critical thing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you that are here today are battling addiction, you're battling depression, and you feel no self love at all. Listen to me. One of the things God wants to teach you is you are worthy of love. One of the things Jesus wants to teach you is to learn to love yourself. So I'm not criticizing that, I'm just saying a decent person loves and cares for themselves.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And and why do we do that? So you're not a burden to someone else. So your family doesn't have to support you, so your friends don't have to pay for your food, so, you know, people aren't paying for your right? You're supporting yourself. That's a decent person.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what's a good person? A good person loves and cares, listen to this, for their family and their friends. So a decent person, right, is self focused and loved. A good person is caring for more than just themselves. Now some of us were blessed to grow up in homes where we had good parents.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Not perfect, good parents. They cared for us, they loved for us, they provided for us. Here's what Jesus says, and this is the killer. A godly person loves and cares for his enemies. I have a hard time loving my family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I get an amen? I mean, the people I love the most are the ones I need the most space from. Remember COVID, we just loved that first week together then it was like, I need us all to die. Right? I just We just need to go get sick.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So Jesus says in Matthew five forty four, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So I want I wanna start with this idea of enemy. So if you're new to Christianity, Jesus uses when he talks what's called hyperbolic language. So what does that mean? He exaggerates things to grab your attention.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we do this all the time. I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse. I've never eaten a horse. Any anybody in here? I've never never even thought about it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You ever looked at a horse and be like, yes, teriyaki sauce. Or we say something like this, I'm so hungry, could eat my own arm. K? That that's what you mean is you need some McDonald's stat. That's what you mean.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So Jesus is using hyperbolic language to wrestle us to the ground so that we have to submit to the fact we don't really know what love is. Now we're gonna get to the fact what does he mean by enemy, but he's grabbing our attention. See, Jesus calls me to love. So let me kinda define and unpack enemy here in a broad way. Jesus calls me to love people who I don't see and I'm indifferent to.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? How many of you guys watched Carrie Carrie excuse me. Katy Perry going to space this week? Anybody see that? K.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All the young people, the old people are like, who? K. She was very famous a couple years ago. Still think she's famous. But after returning from space, this week, this is what she said.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's one of the best word salads I've heard in a long time. She said, I feel super connected to love. You know? I feel super connected. Just imagine my hair.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Swish, swish. I feel super connected to love. Listen, so connected to love. You never know how much love is inside. Katy Perry.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's right up there with Jesus. Right? It's right. It's so close. Now, some of you are like, well, why are you picking on her?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's why. Katie used to identify as a Christian. Some of you didn't know that. She got her start in music as a Christian artist. So what happened?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Well, she's beautiful. Okay? She's talented. And let's be honest, she has become extremely successful. Extremely successful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But here's what happened in her life. She went from it all being about God to it all being about herself. I want you to listen to these words very carefully. There's so much love inside. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. No. No. There's so much love in Jesus. And what Jesus is trying to teach us here, if we're not careful listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're not careful, even if you call yourself a Christian, even if you start out as a young person, I'm gonna worship God, I'm gonna use my talents for God, you can get very, very confused very quickly. If you identify as a Christian, this can happen to you. Listen, it can happen to me. It's easy to get consumed with yourself. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How many of you know somebody that loves themselves to me? Have you seen me? Have you experienced me? Let's talk about me. But let me say this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Love is not a bunch of rich women going to space for eleven minutes. Listen to me. Love is seeing the millions of women on this planet who aren't going anywhere. They are trapped in poverty. Love is doing something about it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:A couple of months ago, Tammy and I, we went to a conference and and here's the thing, everybody loves to hate on mega churches, but when they need money, guess who they call? Not the little churches, they call the big churches. And so I'm just sitting there, and I and I gotta tell you, I had a bad attitude because I know they're gonna ask for money. And we're sitting there, and I had a bad attitude, and they started to talk about it. And I was unaware.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So, right, people I don't see and am indifferent to. They're suffering all around the world we don't see. We only see whatever the media decides we see. They literally decide what story should we see today. I didn't know this, but there are areas in Africa that are experiencing famine and drought that we haven't seen in fifty years.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't know this. And things are so bad, women particularly are having to choose to sell a child into slavery to feed their other kids. And here's the thing. Listen to me. Guys, if you're married, I I want you to listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Your wife is a gift from God because I had this hard heart, this cold heart, and I'm like, here it comes. They're asking for money, which they did. But I look at my wife and tears are running down her face and she says, if I was in Africa, I would want someone to come for me. And then, right, she grabs my arm and she says, I would pray that God sent someone for me. I was like, we're giving, we're giving.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me guys, God has given you, your wife, to soften you. K? She is a gift from God. And I just in that moment, I said, Lord, what do wanna do? And then I found out parents were selling their kids for $5.20.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Wow. So for what we spend on a cup of coffee, okay, now if you're an old person, that sounds confusing, but if you're young people, like, that's a deal. What we spend on a cup of coffee is the price of a child for about thirty days. So we're entering in a campaign at Sandals, and if you're new here, none of this money goes to us. All of this money is leaving our church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because generosity is a muscle and the more you use it the more it grows. And what I want us to do as a big church is I want us to have a big heart and I want us to make a big difference not just in Southern California but around the globe and I want little kids in Africa to know that Jesus loves them and that there's a church in Riverside that sees them and we're gonna do everything that we can to help them. Can I get an amen? Amen. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So for the next five weeks, okay, for the next five weeks, we are going to be taking an offering over and above and I'll be talking about it for five weeks, okay? And I know some of you know that this weekend is 04:20, Right? Sinners. Sinners. You need to listen up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But on 05/20 on 05/20, we're gonna do something. We're gonna do something big. And we're gonna send a love offering to Africa and around the globe for, listen to me, people that are unseen. For people that are unheard. And we're not gonna we're not gonna make some word salad.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's so much love inside. We're actually gonna do something in the name of love. Amen? That's what we're gonna do as a church. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we'll be talking more about that. Next, Jesus defines love as this, loving people who I don't like and I disagree with. Now I know you're a Christian, so you love everyone. But our vision at Sandals is being real. It's being real.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? I don't know if you've seen around the city, but there's these little signs that you put in your yard. It's a sandals church. No perfect people, just real people. You see no signs?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Well, Tammy and I were walking in our neighborhood, and there's this this house in our neighborhood. Okay? And I'm not here to judge you just just a little. That's all I'm gonna say. I'm gonna judge a little.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And this guy's yard, it to say to say it needs help, it needs the risen power of Jesus. Okay? It looks like a junkyard from the nineteen seventies. And as I'm judging this yard, I see our lawn sign in the yard. Oh, lord.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:These are our people. You know? All the people that mow their lawns don't go to church, but this guy, he goes to sandals, and he's letting all of his neighbors know. But right, people are broken. People are broken.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And almost thirty years ago, Tammy and I wanted to start a church where the bruised and the broken and the real could gather together. And you know what that means? Sometimes we encounter difficult people. Jesus says, real love loves people I don't like and disagree with. How have we done at that the last five years?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's a research group called Barna. It's a Christian research group and it says more people have changed churches in the last five years than the last fifty. You wanna know why? We've not been very good at loving people we don't agree with. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And stay sandals long enough. I'll say something. I know. You're like, there's no way. Stay here long enough and at some point, I'll say something that you don't agree with.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And let me just be honest, sometimes I say things later, I'm like, yeah. I don't agree with that. Who said that? And I realized it was me. K?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Speaking like the way I am, it's not a perfect way to communicate. I don't manuscript these messages. I'm not reading word for word. I'm doing the best I can to communicate to you what God's put on my heart. So let me just tell you, when I read this passage, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, I just wanna be honest with you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It makes me bristle a little bit. I told my wife this week, I don't know that I've been asked to preach on a portion of scripture in the last couple years where I feel really inadequate at. Matter of fact, I would say this is the area where I need to grow in the most. Because as I become successful, I have other pastors that work for me. I'm like, oh, you're gonna go pray with them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're gonna go visit them. Right? I've gotten some distance from really, really difficult people. But Jesus says real love is not just embracing people we like, but real love is embracing people we don't like. People that we disagree with.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People that we see politics with in a different way. And and think about this, so many of you, you have like me, I have family members that don't speak to me anymore because of politics. See, earthly love is broken when it comes to politics. Jesus says, no. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. Real love is more powerful than politics. Next, this gets even worse if you're already like, I'm going to another church. Here we go. Jesus teaches that real love is for people who have been mean and I feel wounded by.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? Tammy and I are going through this right now. Right now as I speak, there's someone in our life who's been verbally abusive. And let me just say this, at times, cruel. He's mocked us and he's put us down.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? I'm gonna be totally real. I dislike this person so much. I don't know. You're just all like Jesus and you've never disliked anyone in your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I dislike this person so much. I I I gotta tell you. I've had some moments where I've asked the Lord, could you please take this person home? You know what I'm saying? Because, you know, like, you kill them, you're going to jail.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If the Lord kills somebody, it's their time. Amen? Like, you know? The angels are always like, good call, Lord. Good call.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But listen to me. This person is dying this week and in the hospital. What did Jesus say? Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. My wife and I are just staring at each other.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Are you gonna pray? We should pray. Someone should pray. And you know what we did? We prayed not because we want to, but because Jesus knows we need to.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because here's the thing, when you start to love like Jesus, your heart changes. It's in those moments. You see, what Jesus is teaching here is it's easy to love the people that love you. It is impossible to love people you can't stand. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And someone that you consider an enemy. Anybody remember high school? Remember walking the halls? My enemy. I remember when I was in high school, my enemy was a year ahead of me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I despised him. I loathed him with loathing with all capital letters. We were in school seventh grade, eighth grade, but he was a year ahead of me, I had a break in junior high, all through high school, and then he was gonna graduate. And you know what? He flunked.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he had to repeat our senior year. Lord, for the love of God, take him to college. Can I get an amen? And the Lord's like, he's not going to college. But here's the thing, some of you say that's impossible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. No. No. It's Jesus. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Romans five ten, for a while we were God's enemies. Some of you don't know what your sin is. Your sin is a rejection of God. Like, one of the most hotly debated issues in higher education is does God exist? What do you think that makes him feel like?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's just I I'm gonna just destroy all these people. Thank God he already did that once. Read the Bible. Genesis six. Alright.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son. Jesus teaches us what love is. And here's the thing, he didn't just teach it, he did it. But here's the thing, as your pastor for almost thirty years, I have to tell you, Jesus instructions on loving my enemies humbles me every time. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And listen to me. Listen to me. I know some of you have come to church today and we're gonna have guests from all kinds of different religious backgrounds. Some of you come from a Muslim background. I just want you to compare Jesus to Mohammed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Compare your favorite stoic philosopher to Jesus. Compare them. Compare any person in the history of the world to Jesus and they will fall short. Because he just didn't say it, he did it. He did it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus Christ is incredible. Next, when we when we read this passage, Jesus challenges me to live at a higher level of love. He's saying, here's my level of love. Where's your level of love? Where is it?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like my wife and I, we had our we didn't have our first grandson, our daughter had the grandson. We watched as she had the grandson. But I'm like, man, we're all in. And then my wife was like, Madison wants us to come over and stay up all night with the baby. I was like, you're all in.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? We're all in on love until it hurts. Some of you at your wedding, I'm gonna love you, always listen to you. Let me tell you something. You know when you know when you really love each other?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When you're at a fear and a fight. And you're like, I love you. And they're like, I love you too. That's love. Listen to Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? You see some of us feel really good about ourselves because we're really good at loving people that love us back. We feel really special. I mean, the truth is I'm really blessed to have the wife that I have and the kids that I have and the life that I live. What reward do you have?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to what he says, do not even tax collectors do the same. Sorry. I'm a little sensitive. I paid taxes this week. A little sensitive.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to this. And if you greet only your brothers, now let's stop there, the people who look like you, the people who can afford to live like you. Ain't it fun to hang out with people that can afford the same vacation that you can afford? Isn't it fun to hang out with people that look like you look? Man, my son and I last month were in Japan and we were on a train.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's about 300 people in our car. I'm not exactly sure. I'm so so a loose estimate. We were the only two white people in the train. You know, one of these kids is not like the other one, right, was us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I was looking around and here's the thing, only 1% of Japan is Christian, less than 1%. And the Lord loves every single one of those people. We have to have a passion for people who don't look like us. And here's why, because they look like him. They look like him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if you only greet your own brothers, your own tribe, your own gang, your own friends, your own church, your own family, What he's saying is you're missing out on a higher level of love. Praise. Praise. Listen to what he says. What more are you doing than others?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's what Jesus is challenging. He's challenging the level of your love. And he says, do not even the Gentiles do the same. Gentiles are people that do not know God. They don't know God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now here's the thing. Here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to leave church today. Some of you, you come to Sandals every single week. I don't want you to leave here today and I don't want you to go, you know what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I need to get better at love. We need to really work at this and we gotta be better Christians. That's not what Jesus is teaching here. God help us if we ever become a church that's trying to be good people. We're missing the gospel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're missing the gospel. Churches that are trying to be good are churches that are headed to hell. They've forgotten the gospel. Listen to what Jesus says and never forget this. Therefore, what's the whole point of the story?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What's the whole point of the teaching? Therefore, you, who's that? You. Amen. Should pray about being perfect.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. Therefore, you what? Must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Amen? Go home.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I want you to go home this week and be perfect. If you're married, raise your hand. Raise your hand if you're married. Be perfect. Be perfect.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Does that help? Be perfect. Be perfect. Come on married people, how hard is it? How hard is it to love the person you love?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You pick them. Okay? This isn't India. Your parents didn't arrange something. You chose.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It was your choice and there were a lot of people out there. Can I just tell you something? I try so hard to be a good husband. Do you know why? It matters to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I care about leading my wife, loving my wife, providing for my wife. It matters to me. We had a discussion two weeks ago where she was pouring her heart out at how much I've hurt her, wounded her, am not listening to her. And let me tell you why it was so frustrating, because I try. It's not like I came home.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna be a jerk today. I'm gonna say things that are insensitive. How sad is that, guys? I'm trying to deescalate a fight, and I'm throwing gas on it. You wanna know why?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm not perfect. Anybody have kids? Oh my gosh. If you don't have one of those, get one. Whew.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Every time my kids call me, I get, like, I I get almost diarrhea. I'm like, okay. Who died? Who got in a car accident? What's happened now?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? I try so hard to be a a good dad, And I have failed so many times. There have been moments I'm so bad at a father, my kid is pouring their heart out to me and I get a text message and it's from my wife and it says, you're not listening. Right? Remember the cartoon Incredibles?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, has superpowers and the wife is screaming at him, engage, engage, engage. That's how I feel like sometimes, not that I have superpowers, but that I need to engage. How many of you have family? Oh my gosh. 20% of you have family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You all have family. So last week, we went to my grandmother's funeral. It was my last grandparent that passed. And I gotta tell you, I was super nervous to go to the funeral. Not because of her.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She was wonderful. But she's gone. This is my family. Whoo. That's fun.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So, like, when a grandma dies, you get everyone. You know what I'm saying? Everyone's there. It's like a birthday party where you can select the family members. You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I was super nervous. You wanna know why? It's really hard. It's really hard to get along with family. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, if you're a kid, try to be the perfect kid. You'll make yourself nuts. Try to be the perfect brother, the perfect sister. Try to be the perfect friend. You can't do it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you have friends? Man, it right? It's hard. Listen to me, especially when you're trying. You see, this is why people miss the gospel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So many people think Christians Christianity is being a good person. No. No. No. Christianity is admitting you're not that good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's what Romans says, for everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Now let's stop there. We've all sinned. It affects us all. My daughter made me sit down, literally my middle daughter made me sit down.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She said, dad, you're gonna watch this show. I didn't wanna watch this show, but I had to because she's my daughter and we were alone and I had no excuses. So she sat me down and she's in her 20s and she would check-in periodically, are you watching? Are you watching? Are you watching?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And the show is called Severed. Anybody heard of this show? Okay, it's one of the top shows, you know, that's produced right now and I don't want to ruin it for you but I'm going to ruin some things for you. But the whole idea is that you go to work every day and you're severed from your outside life. So your outside person doesn't know what you do at work and your work person doesn't know what you do on the outside.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I thought what a perfect example of what sin does. It severs us from God. We don't know who we really are. We don't know who God really is. We don't know who each other are.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're severed by sin. And there's nothing we can do to heal the severing. For we all sin and fall short of his glorious standard. Look at these words, yet God. Christianity is not about you doing anything, it's about God doing everything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight. How did he do this? He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. Listen to me, nobody nobody loves you like Jesus. Last week, it was the day after my grandmother's funeral and my family was headed to church for Palm Sunday and I had a cousin who just said, hey, I just I don't feel like going to church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Would you guys go out to breakfast with me? I was like, sure. Can I just if you're a Christian, I I just want you to hear that statement? I I don't feel like going to church. And we're walking on the way to breakfast.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, why don't you wanna go to church? She said, feel so guilty. I feel so ashamed. Listen to me Sandals Church, I want us to be a church where the people who feel guilt and feel shame say, you know what I need to do? I gotta go to Sandals because that's where I'm gonna meet Jesus and that's where I'm gonna be loved.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's who I want us to be. I don't want us to be a church where we're judging everybody like like like somehow we've met God's standard, therefore be perfect. I did it. I made it and so can you. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She started to pour her heart out talking about my my own cousin, homeless. I didn't know. My own cousin, an addict. I didn't know. And here's this thing, the whole time she's sharing this, you know what she's afraid because I'm a pastor, she's afraid that I'm gonna judge her and want nothing to do with her.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I want you to know all I wanted to do was jump across that table and hold her and say, I've loved you since the day I held you. I'm like twenty years older than she is. I saw her when she was a baby, I saw her when she walked, I took her for ice cream when she was in elementary school. I love this kid. I love this woman.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's what she thinks of Christians. She thinks we want nothing to do with her because she's a sinner. We have failed. We have failed church. But here's the thing and I want you to hear me, my love cannot change her but the love of Jesus can.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The love of Jesus can. Nobody loves you like Jesus. Nobody. You know what Jesus can't do? He can't stop loving you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He doesn't know how. Nobody loves you like Jesus. Nobody has sacrificed for you like Jesus. Nobody died on the cross for you like Jesus. You know what Jesus did?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He nailed your sins to the cross. All of your insecurities, all of your weaknesses, all of your sins. I have a Muslim friend that can't come to Jesus. And here's what she says, so my sins just disappear? No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They went there. Yeah. Right on the cross. Yep. Nailed him to the cross.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Nobody has ever been cursed for you like Jesus. Some of you don't know this. You know curse words today, some of you use them. But you don't know curse words two thousand years ago. You wanna know what the worst curse word you could say as a Roman was?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Crucify yourself. We found it in Pompeii on the walls. Teenage Roman citizens, they couldn't spray paint it. I don't know how they did it, etched it in slowly. But there's graffiti in Pompeii that says, go crucify yourself.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can you think of a word we use in English when we tell people to do something like that? It begins with an f and it is in faith. Jesus was cursed for your sins. I want you to think about that the next time you read the story of the gospels where they chant they chant, crucify him. Crucify him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Crucify him. They're cursing his very name. But here's the thing. Here's what we're here today. Not just because he died, but because he rose.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He rose from the dead. Nobody ever rose from the dead like Jesus. Nobody. Here's the gospel. Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Nobody is perfect except for Jesus. Nobody. Not me, not you, not the Pope, not your favorite teacher online, not your mom, not your dad, not even my beautiful, wonderful, amazing grandmother who lived a wonderful life but she was not perfect. Hebrews twelve two, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of what? Our faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There are no perfect people at Sandals Church, just real people. Just a bunch of forgiven sinners, listen to me, trying to follow Jesus. And you just heard me say, I'm struggling with what I taught you today. You wanna know why? I'm not even close to perfect.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But here's what I want you to know. Nobody can get you to heaven except for Jesus. Nobody. I'm not saying my religion is better. I'm saying Jesus is better.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:John fourteen six, Jesus said, I'm the way and the truth and the life. No one, you can pray about who that includes, I think it means you. No one comes to the father. That's God. Jesus says, except through me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Last point. Nobody is worthy of your life like Jesus. Every one of us is sacrificing our life for someone or something and here's the thing, it's not worth your life. It's not worth your life, only Jesus is. It's not worth your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wanna challenge you to give your life to Jesus. I want you to think about this. Have you ever asked yourself what's the worst sin? What's the worst sin? What's the most evil thing that's ever been committed in the history of the world?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's what it is. It's the crucifixion and the murder of the son of God. It's the worst thing that's ever been done. The perfect, innocent, beautiful son of God betrayed by one of his best friends, lied about by his own people, and a judge who washed his hands and said he's not guilty, crucified him. And why did he do all that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that the best day or excuse me, the worst day could become the very best day. Amen. Now think about this for a second. If God can turn the worst day in the history of the world into the best day in the history of the world, what could he do if you gave your life to him? What could he do if you gave your life to him?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of say, well, how do I give my life to Jesus? I wanna just ask you to do three things. Admit what you already know. You're not perfect. You know who doesn't get into heaven?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People who think they're perfect. Number two, ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Many of you in here, you've been church for a long time and you think you're a Christian. If you've never repented of your sins, you're not a believer. You're an observer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're an observer. Christians ask for forgiveness. Last thing, number three, invite Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Invite him to be the Lord of your life. If you're ready to give your life to Jesus, he asked us to publicly declare your faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I want you to think about this. When blind people heard that Jesus was walking by, you know what they did? They called out for him. When deaf people saw that he was walking by, they ran to him. When crippled people saw Jesus, they reached for him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen very carefully to what I'm gonna say, there's only so many moments in your life where Jesus walks by. And if this is that moment, reach for him, cry for him, motion for him. And here's the thing, here's what the Bible says, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Anyone that reads for Jesus, reaches for Jesus. Listen to me, he reaches right back.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here's the thing, as a church, in just a moment, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand if you wanna give your life to Jesus. We will celebrate you, but we cannot raise our hands for you. Only you can do that. So if there's anybody here that wants to give their life to Jesus, I just wanna encourage you to raise your hand right now. Is there anybody?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thank you, brother. Anybody else? Amen, brother. Let's give them a hand. Come on, church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Anybody? Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I'm gonna pray for you right now. But here's the thing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If your hand went up, Jesus' hand just went down. And if you meant it, he meant it, and he'll never let you go. Let's pray, Sandals Church. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly father, we thank you so much for you sending your son to die for us on the cross.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord Jesus, we love you and God, give our lives to you. We thank you so much for the cross. We thank you so much for the cross. We thank you that you died for us and you rose from the dead promising us eternal life. Lord, right now we choose to make you the Lord of our life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We pray this in Jesus name and the church said, amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Thank you guys so much for joining us for our Easter service here at Sandals Church online. For those of you who made a decision to follow Jesus, I wanna encourage you to go to sandalschurch.com/followjesus so that our team can follow-up with you as you begin to understand what that looks like and how he's gonna continue to change your life. And listen, if our ministry of this sermon has continued to serve you well, I wanna encourage you to pray about supporting the work that we do so that we can continue to bring this Easter message to all kinds of people across the world. To do that, you can go to sandalschurch.com/support. Grace and peace and happy Easter.
Morgan Teruel:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have the YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.