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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
How many of you guys have ever needed a holiday? Anybody? Yeah. Only half of the room. So if you're watching from a campus, I hope that you're working hard enough to deserve a holiday.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But, one of my favorite ad campaigns I love ads. I love marketing. In another life, that's what I would do. I used to look forward to the Super Bowl commercials back when they were good. Remember those those days?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But remember, Southwest Airlines wanna get away. Right? It's something awkward happened. You need to get away. Well, in Europe, they have a discount, travel agency called Jet two Holidays.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So And it's kinda taken over a storm. If you're on TikTok, I love TikTok. Judge me later. But, basically, it's become this meme on TikTok for when you go and you do something and it falls apart. And, like, literally, it's a dumpster fire, and it says nothing beats a Jet two holiday.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And basically it means your whole life is unraveling and you paid for this, you signed up for this. And so I just want you to know that sometimes when you follow Jesus, it's a jet to holiday and the dumpsters on fire, you fell off the rope swing, you crashed your car. And here's the thing is it's all by design. Okay, God is doing something in your life to bring about something in your life. And so today we're gonna talk about unlocking the power of God in my life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if you're not careful, listen to me in Christianity, you can just kind of put it on cruise control. And you can just kinda sit there, yep, did the church thing, read my Bible today, said my prayers, and you never really engage in the jet to holiday that Jesus has for you. And so we're gonna we're gonna read some scripture today and and most of you are kinda you're gonna read this and if you grew up in church, you can be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard this, know this, got it, check. But most of you have missed this your entire life. I actually wrote for LifeWay bookstores on this passage of scripture about fifteen years ago.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they literally sent it back to me and they said, this is not true. And I said, this is true, consult your theologians. And they went to their theologians, they're like, yeah, the weird pastor from California is correct. But they didn't wanna publish what I'm gonna tell you because it's a power packed message that really will rattle us. And instead of feeling a Southwest getaway, this feels like a jet two holiday where the dumpsters on fire and maybe everything that you know about the Bible's unraveling, but it's important so that you can truly understand what Jesus is saying.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So let's open our Bibles to Matthew 16, and we're just looking at seven verses today, just seven verses, but this is a spiritual retreat that many of us need to take. Okay, this is not the holiday you planned, but this is the holiday that Jesus has booked you for. So let's take a look at Matthew sixteen thirteen through 20. Let's read together. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they say, well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. And then he asked him, but who do you say that I am? And now they're all a little nervous and only one guy, Peter, who is always willing to put his foot in his mouth. He speaks up and he says, Simon Peter, Simon Peter answered, he said, you're the Messiah, the son of the living God. And Jesus replied, look at this, you are blessed Simon, son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You did not learn this from any human being. He says, now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock. That's what his name means in Greek, Petros, rock. And upon this rock, I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then he sternly warned them, the disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Messiah. Now, some of you are like, okay, I've read that, I know that story, but I want you to know that all of us fit in one of two categories today, right? So you've grown up in church, you know God's word, you've studied God's Bible your whole life. I want you to know there's probably something in this that you've missed. And then for those of you who are new to Christianity, it's so important that you get this right as you begin your spiritual journey.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Even if you're a seeker today, even if you're like, you're not sure if there's a God, you're not sure if Christianity is true, you don't know what you believe about Jesus. If you can get this right on the first step of your spiritual path, it will save you so much heartache later in life. Some of us as Christians need to relearn this. So to unlock God's power in my life, I mean, of us, if you were honest today, your relationship with God can be like a relationship in your marriage with a friend or with the people that you work with. It just can feel kind of stale.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we gotta guard against this because lukewarm faith is an enemy of true faith. So we have to watch this. So to unlock God's power in my life, okay, don't lose your minds. I wanna challenge you to embrace the mystical. Now, some of you are like, Harry Potter.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, I'm not talking. I am not talking about magic. I use the word mystical very intentionally. Because for those of you who grew up in church, if I use the word spiritual, it's a word that you're comfortable with, but I lose you. You see mystical is a word that describes the transcendence of the spiritual to the physical.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It helps us kind of get out of the way. We've gotten so used as Christians to arguing for the reliability of scripture and the trustworthiness of it, we've kind of turned it into a science textbook. And we've divorced it from the spiritual reality and mystical book that it is. What do I mean by mystical? It's a connection between the spiritual world and our real world, okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The world that we live in, it's a joining point. And sometimes as Christians, we divorce ourselves from God's power because we won't even consider the mystical. And some of us are more mathematical than we are about the Messiah. So many of you in October this year, you sent me emails, you're all concerned because this mathematician figured out the Bible and he knew the day that Jesus was coming. And you all freaked out, you're like the math guy got it right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen, you know, I don't know when Jesus is coming, but I know when the math guy said it was that day, I know he's wrong because this book says nobody, not a mathematician, okay, we all hated them in high school, amen? They're not gonna figure it out because Jesus says no one knows. So when he said it was that day, you all freaked out. I like, that's not the day. Because it's not a mathematical formula.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's a mystical encounter with a living God who will return when he chooses. Not when you figure out the formula. Okay. So Matthew six thirteen, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. So this is not their idea.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They didn't choose this. He's going to this place. This is not on the bucket list of places to vacation from the disciples. Right? If they wrote down places to go, they don't wanna go to this place.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we're gonna get to that in a second. But we're gonna look at the question of Jesus. Who do people say that the son of man is? Now, if you're new to Christianity, this is why this is so important, or you're considering Christianity. The Son of Man is a title that is used in the Hebrew Bible, we call it the Old Testament.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's the favorite term of Ezekiel to describe himself over 90 times. But specifically in this instance, I think Jesus is talking about Daniel seven. And Daniel chapter seven, listen to me, is a picture of the future end times. And so Daniel in chapter seven verses 13 to 14, he has a vision. So let's look at this vision.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:As my vision continued that night, I saw someone, do you see it? Like the son of man. Now I want you to look at the words like a son of man. So what does that mean? He's not sure what he's seeing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:See, that's mystical. He's not he's not exactly sure. I saw someone like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. Now this is ancient Hebrew language to describe divinity, to describe God. This is very important for us to understand.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I saw someone like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, and he approached the ancient one and was led into his presence. Now let's pause there. If any of us have a Muslim friend, we love Muslims, we wanna reach Muslims, this is a problematic text for them because they believe there's only one God, which we believe as well. But in this text, thrones is plural. Thrones is plural.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So this is the ancient of days, this is final judgment. God takes his seat, the ancient of days takes his seat, listen to this, in the thrones, plural. And so what we need to know here is, and so Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus, what do we know as Christians? Jesus, when he ascended to heaven, he took his seat at the right hand of the father. Why is that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's two thrones in heaven. One God sits on the father and one God, the son sits on. Okay? So he approached the ancient of days. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hold on. Let's go back. He approached the ancient of days. One was led Excuse me, he approached the ancient one and was led into his presence. Okay, now let's go forward.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He was given authority and honor and sovereignty over all the nations of the world so that the people of every race, every nation, and every language would obey him. Amen. Now it gets deeper. His rule is what? Do you see it?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Eternal. Now this is not the New Testament. This is not Christianity. This is Judaism. His rule is eternal.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed. So now let's go back to Jesus. Jesus takes the disciples on this jet to holiday, they don't wanna go, they don't wanna be there, this is not on their vacation list. And he says, who do you say the son of man is?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now here's where it's important to be mystical, Matthew sixteen fourteen. Well, you know what that means? They don't know. They don't know. Well, they replied, some say.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what that means? We don't wanna get it wrong. We don't wanna get the answer wrong. We're scared to death. It's like when I ask you guys questions.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, who is the son of God? You're like, I think Jesus. I think I think it's but you're scared to death. Right? Because nobody wants to be embarrassed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. Let me translate this for you, okay, in the Greek, we have no idea. We have no idea who the son of man is. So part of unlocking the power of God is to embrace the mystical. Just to say, there are some things that we don't understand, we don't fully understand everything about God, but when we turn this into a science book, a textbook or a mathematical book, we automatically divorce ourselves from a place God wants to take us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So if you're a church leader and you're like, well, I don't know pastor Matt, I think it's important that we teach people the truth. I do too. Look at what Paul tells Timothy on how to raise up leaders. Now these are deacons, but I wrote church leaders. They church leaders, the word here is deacon must hold, do you see the word?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:To the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. So we gotta be careful. So sometimes in wanting to overexplain, we empty the gospel of its power. We empty the gospel of its power, and churches do this all the time. So if you grew up Catholic, you know, we just partook of the Lord's Supper in service, right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Catholics believe that when you partake of the Lord's Supper, it's literally the body and blood of Jesus Christ. When they bless it, it becomes Jesus, okay? Then I grew up Baptist and we were taught that it's not Jesus at all, that it's just a symbol, a memorial of his death. That's it. Now I think both groups are wrong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And probably the Lutherans, no amen from the Lutherans, probably the Lutherans are the closest to what it is. And what they say is, no, no, no, it's bread and it's wine, but Jesus's presence is there. What the Lutheran said is it's mystical. We don't know what it is. And we gotta be careful as a church that we don't just turn it into a symbol, or we don't tell people this literally is the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's mystical. We don't know what it is, but somehow God is present in the midst. And if we lose that, right, you're like, why are we eating bread and crackers or crackers and juice? We gotta make sure that we understand this is so powerful. I was doing some counseling this week with a young person in our church and they're just, can I just say, I'm just praying for the young people in our church?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And this young person in our church is just really struggling with a lot of guilt, a lot of shame, and just a lot of ugliness in her life. And you know what I told her? I said, come to church every week and make sure you take the Lord's supper every week and remind yourself that his blood covers all your sins. Because see what the enemy is saying is she's broken and can't be fixed. What the Eucharist says, what the Lord's Supper says, it's already been fixed by the power of the Christ blood.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? Amen. So I just said, every single week, you sit there and remember this, you feel broken, but when we break that bread, we bake that cracker. Remember his life was broken to heal yours, to save yours. And I said, let's bind the enemy from that and remind yourself whether you feel it or not, whether you experience it or not, Christ is there with you in that moment.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She started crying. And listen to me, some of you, you don't understand why that's so important. It's so important because we need to remind ourselves when we worship, when we gather Christ is here. He's with us, okay? So to unlock God's power in my life, I must, this is hard, face the darkness.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now, let me tell you one of the number one ways to tell if something is false spirituality, okay? False spirituality only wants to see the good. What does that mean? It's all about love. It's all about love, right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everything's love, everything's good. That's how you know something is fake. Now we wanna be about love and God is love, and he wants us to love, but that is not the testimony of the word of God. It's not all about love. It's all about God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So false spirituality only wants to see the good. Real spirituality wants to see the truth. So why did Jesus take him to Caesarea Philippi? Matthew sixteen thirteen, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. Okay, why Caesarea Philippi?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's a great question. And I want you to be thinking about this and sending your questions for the debrief, because I cannot answer every question that you have about this. Because literally when I wrote this Bible study for LifeWay, they're like, that's not true. I'm like, it's true. These are the people that write Sunday school curriculum.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they're like, you're wrong. I'm like, check with your higher ups. And they're like, the California guy's right. Okay, so it's interesting. Caesarea Philippi is a town at the base of a mountain Mount Herman.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, Mount Herman is 9,230 feet. It's twice the height of any other mountain in Israel. It is a spiritual place. Now, during the time of Jesus, the disciples would have been incredibly aware of a book that was circulating amongst them called Enoch. Okay, now Enoch didn't make it in to our scriptures.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It is in the Ethiopian Canon, but it's not in ours. And I'm not saying it's scripture, but we need to be aware of what they would have been thinking when they went there. So Jesus takes them to the base of Mount Hermon, is ground zero for spiritual rebellion. This is spooky. It's like an episode of Scooby Doo.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like they're like, we don't wanna be there. We don't wanna go there. Okay, they're creeped out. So Mount Hermon is this mountain where in the book of Enoch, the council of God rebelled against him, they don't like God's plan, they reject God, they descend on Mount Hermon, they come down and in Genesis chapter six, the sons of God have sex with the daughters of Eve and produce the Nephilim. This is why you're gonna send in debrief questions.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, crazy town. This is crazy town. That's why the disciples don't wanna be here. This is bad, right? And at the base of it is the Temple Of Pan.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, anybody know the Disney cartoon Peter Pan. So Peter Pan is a story of rejecting becoming an adult. What happens to become an adult? You hit puberty and you get sexual desires. Pan is kind of this sexual half goat God, he's the God of chaos, it's bad news.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so at the base of this mountain in Caesarea Philippi is this cave where the Temple Of Pan is and it's considered, listen to me, the gates of hell. And this is a deep cave where the River Jordan springs out. So Jewish people in the first century would never go there. They would never go there. That is bad place.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like it's not like Vegas, it's like New Orleans. And I don't mean like the people in New Orleans are bad, but it's witchcraft and gambling and prostitution all married together. This is not where you go as a young Jewish man. But Jesus says, let's take a jet holiday. And that's the thing, sometimes Jesus has to take you someplace you don't wanna go to get you where you need to be.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so many people have missed this their entire life, Matthew sixteen eighteen. Upon this rock, I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. Here's what I believe Jesus was doing. He's putting his hand on the Temple of Pan. He's putting his hand on the closest we can get to hell in this physical world, And he says, I'm gonna destroy this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now listen to me, raise your hand if you're a parent. Okay, parents, I love you. We don't just need to protect our kids from evil. Listen to me, we need to prepare them to defeat it. Okay, a lot of parents, amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:A lot of parents, here's what you do. We're gonna protect all our kids and we're gonna keep them pure and we're gonna keep them innocent. Listen to me, there's no such thing as a perfect parent. And if you think you're perfect, you're a liar and this isn't the church for you. I love you, but go be perfect somewhere else, amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like go bless someone with your presence. There's no such thing as a perfect parent and listen to me, there's no such thing as a perfect place. Parents are always trying to move to a better school, better town, better location, we gotta get out of California, right? Then it'll be, we gotta get out of Tennessee. They're always looking for the perfect place.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's the thing, even if you could be the perfect parent and you can't. And even if you could find the perfect place, which there isn't, your kids could still mess up. And you know how I know that? Because there was a place called Eden and Adam and Eve had a father named God and they still managed to screw it up. Now listen to me parents, if your kids have got it wrong, it's not all your fault.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You don't get to take the credit if your kids become the president of The United States and you don't have to take all the credit if they go to jail. You see the problem, listen to me parents, isn't that evil's on the outside trying to get in, it's on the inside trying to get out. And that's why Jesus takes them there. Because first century Jews thought they could be holy by removing themselves from evil. Go back to a couple weeks ago to pastor Justin's message, Jesus says, no, no, no, the problem isn't on the outside, the problem's on the inside.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now listen to this, this is as close to hell as the disciples will ever get. According to two Peter, Jesus descended onto hell. He didn't just touch the gates, he went through the gates and he defeated sin and he defeated death to get you out of there. He's not afraid of hell, he knows he's going to destroy it. So to unlock God's power in my life, I must see Jesus as the light of the world.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is why his parents were so afraid to let our kids see darkness. Do you know where light is the easiest to spot? In the dark. Go out and turn your flashlight on during the day. And by the way, parents who are raising your kids in church, that's why it's so hard to teach them about sin.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because you're running around and they're in all this light and you're telling them Jesus is the light of the world. Listen, let me tell you, you know when you see Jesus as the light of the world, when you experience darkness. And here's what you need to teach your kids. Listen, we're gonna do our best to keep you from this. And I think parents, you need to carefully and gently expose them to things in your presence and prepare them and don't send them off as naive little Christian bumpkins to college because what happens is they lose their faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So do what Jesus did, take them on a field trip, you know, go to New Orleans and let's play a game. Spot the drunk passed out person. There's one, there's one, right? And that's why you don't drink, because what is Hollywood show? The fun of alcoholism.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What is New Orleans show? The reality of alcoholism. Okay, so be very, very careful. If you build a shield and protect them from everything, you just make them naive. Matthew sixteen fifteen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So he asked them, who do you say I am? So the first question is about the son of man, they're not sure. It's this mystical being in the book of Daniel chapter seven, and there was all kinds of debate about who this person was. And nobody really knows. It's why when you read your Bibles, Jesus constantly refers to himself as the son of man.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's saying, I'm a mystical being. And they're saying, okay, but Jesus says, who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter, you gotta bless him, right? We always criticize him, but at least he spoke up. He says, You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing is, you're like, Oh my gosh, he's so smart. You know, he's teachers pet. No, no, listen to what Jesus says. Jesus replied, you are blessed Simon, son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you. You know what he's saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're not that smart. You're not that smart. He says this, you did not learn this from any human being. Now listen to me, we all have friends and we all have family that aren't Christians and we want them to be saved. We want them to know Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so you know what we do? We argue with him and we try to prove that the Bible is true. Man, how many of you guys get changed through an argument when someone's like, you know what, you're an idiot. And you're like, thank you for showing me how dumb I am. Do you know that psychology has actually proven that human beings will double down on being wrong rather than admitting you were right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So let me just help you out. Invite God into the equation. Don't argue, say things like this. I just hope God shows himself to be real to you in your life like he has to mine. That's my prayer for you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I remember one time in Sandals Church in the lobby, there was an atheist and he's like, he says, I think this whole thing's a joke. I said, well, then you'll have no problem with me praying that God haunts you this this week. Dude, you should have seen that atheist face. He was like, what? No, I'm gonna pray that this fictitious fake God scares you to death all week and wakes you up in the middle of the night and you're terrified.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's pray that right now. He's like, I'm not praying that. I said, why? It's nothing. See why they don't allow me in guest services.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here's the thing, listen to me. Do know how you lead somebody to Christ? It's not arguing the word of God with him. It's waiting until they experience darkness. Because when people experience darkness, that's when they're ready for the light.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:John eight twelve, again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. That's what we're offering. There's a better way to live. And so if you've come to church today and you've been invited to, I'm telling you there's a better way to live.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's a God in heaven who desperately loves you and you are corrupted and infected with sin. And I wish there was a cure. I wish we could pray hard, dress like holy people, man, say a couple prayers, you know, pray to Mary and it would be all fixed. It cannot be fixed by anything that we do. It can only be fixed by what Jesus does.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen. That's it. And here's the good news. I love what the gospel of John says in John one five. And I just wanna pray this for anybody that's really wrestling with darkness right now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:John says, the light shines in the darkness, listen to this, and the darkness has not overcome it. I don't care how dark the room is in your house. What happens to darkness when you turn the lights on? It loses every time. Darkness is the absence of light.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If your light is consumed with darkness, I wanna invite you to invite Jesus, the Lord of light into your life. Amen. Because listen to me, I don't know what you're going through, but I want you to know Jesus took his disciples to the very pit of hell. And he says, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna turn the lights on here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna turn the lights on. Jesus goes on to say on John, you know why people reject him ultimately? It's because they love the darkness more than the light. And they scurry from it. Scurry from it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:To unlock God's power in my life, this is so important. I gotta take the keys. I gotta take the keys. Man, raise your hand if you're a husband. Don't you hate it when your wife's right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It drives me crazy when she's right. And my wife is always on me about locking things. Lock the front door, lock the back door, lock your car. And I'm like, woman, I'm a man and no one would ever try to steal anything from me because they have to deal with this. You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I I kid you not. This is like this is like a an a daily conversation every night before we go to bed. Did you lock the front door? Did you lock the car? And I'm like, why Lord did you give me this woman who constantly So guess what happens?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't lock my car. And because I'm a genius, I left the keys in it. I know, I know. That's why the Lord gave me my wife to help me. So I wake up in the morning and I'm gonna go surfing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's about 05:30 in the morning. It's still dark. I get in my car. This is honestly what I thought, guys. Did Tammy mess up my car?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I I honestly thought she was paperwork's all over the place. Everything's open. You guys, I got a Ford f one fifty. There's a secret compartment I didn't know that was there for two years when I owned it. It's open.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I'm like, man, I didn't know she knew about the secret compartment. And then I realized, somebody broke into my car. And then I was like, I was so mad. And I was like, I have to tell Tammy. I'm not gonna tell Tammy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna lie about it. I mean, that's gonna be the biggest fattest I told you so in our marriage. But here's the thing, you know what they stole? They took some cash, I some cash in there. I'd done a wedding and somebody paid me in cash, which was great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They stole the cash. They stole a bunch of paperwork. But do you know what they took? The keys. Do you know what that means?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They now have access to my truck whenever they want. They have as much access to my truck as I do and it's my truck. Do you know why they have access? They took the keys. Some of you have missed this theological point your entire life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus says, who do you say that I am? He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Yes, that is true. And your name is Peter and you're a little rock. Jesus is the king of little insults.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're the little rock Peter. And then he puts his hands on the gates of hell and he says, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against us. Look at this verse, Matthew 16, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Do you know why there's no power in your life? You haven't taken the keys.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know what keys do? They unlock the power. If you have the keys to my Ford f one fifty, do you know what you can do? You can drive it. You can take it wherever you want.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You can take a jet to holiday on me. Keys are powerful. Keys are powerful. Now here's where I disagree with my Catholic brothers and sisters, they believe that only Peter has the keys. I believe that Peter is a symbol for every disciple who follows Jesus, every disciple who confesses Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's what I believe, every single one of us that truly understands the battle that we are fighting, that truly understands the victory that we have in Jesus has the keys. Now listen to this. He says, whatever you forbid, I've underlined it on an outline, I want you to underline this word. We'll talk about it in a second. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Now these words are tough to translate because literally what they mean in Greek is to bind and to loosen. And so it's hard to translate, but let me tell you why I'm gonna translate the way that I do. I don't think it makes sense to use the words bind and loosen when we're talking about keys. I think it's better to say lock and open.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you can use these words this way, but they're most often used as to bind and to lose because in a culture only rich people had locks, poor people had ropes. But here's the thing, the gates of hell are locked, but Jesus has opened them. And he is giving you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And here's the thing, you have the ability to do things that no one else can do. You can open things that previously were unopenable and you can close things that people could not close.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's the power that we have. Listen to me, if you are a born again Christian, I want you to know that we have the power to open things that cannot be opened. Listen to me, we live in a culture where everybody thinks they're going to heaven, they don't have the keys. They don't have the keys, but you do. Jesus has given you the keys and you can unlock heaven for people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You can unlock things, things they've never seen, things they've never thought. You have the ability. People don't need a counselor for everything. Sometimes they need the wisdom of Christ and he's given you those keys. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so many of you, so many of you, you have friends, they won't go to church, they're battling porn. They're battling addiction. They're battling gambling. They're battling all kinds of issues and they've tried so hard to defeat these issues in their life. And they can't shut off the power of the devil, but you can, you have the keys.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you can lock that out in the name of Jesus. What if you can help people more than a counselor can? A counselor can help them reflect, help them own, help them process and help them heal. A counselor cannot kick the devil out, but you can. And a counselor cannot teach them how to invite Christ in, but you can.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me church, it makes me so sad that so many young people today think the government is what we need to fix things. That's on us. We need to show them that Jesus is the one who can fix things because the government rests on his shoulders. And we gotta show them. I wanna challenge you to take a stand this week to claim your power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you guys, you you got teenagers like, what am I gonna do? You got the keys. What do you mean? You got the power. You got the power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you can win because Jesus already did, amen. Amen. So we're gonna close with this verse. Somebody's like, I feel empowered, okay. Jesus wants to send you the Holy Spirit to receive his power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're married right now and you're like, you know what, need power. I want you to hold hands as we pray together. And I want you to receive the spirit together. If you're a single person, Matt, you don't know how hard it is to be single. You don't know how hard it is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You don't know all, you don't know how the gates of hell are coming after me. I don't, but he does. And you can receive his power if you ask for it. Now here's the thing you need to know, the Holy Spirit is only for those who have received Christ and confessed him as Lord. You have to believe in him to receive his power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Acts one:eight, you will receive power. This is Jesus speaking, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You have the keys, you have the keys to the kingdom. Listen to me moms, you have power you don't know about. Man, my kids, they were little, when they were lying, teenagers lying, I would tell them, you just tell the truth, she knows.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She knows. And I know I've lied, I've tried. The Holy Spirit pumps through her veins and God, the power of heaven speaks through her, confess and we will all go home. I kid you not, I kid you not, my wife drives me crazy. We go to bed at night, she hits that pillow, she is out.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I just sit there in judgment judging her. I'm like you sleep like your conscience is clear. Listen to me, it could be two in the morning, three in the morning, four in the morning. If my kids are sinning, the Holy Spirit wakes her up. She walks into their rooms.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What are you doing? I've seen it. Moms, you wanna catch your kids? Get the Holy Spirit. Because he'll be watching.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Dads get the Holy Spirit. You're afraid to lead your wife like no man could lead this woman, the Holy Spirit can. Holy Spirit can, sick God on her. Amen. Listen to me single people, you feel like you're living in the gates of hell and you feel like the devil's all around you and you wanna experience this victory, get the Holy Spirit in your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Say Holy Spirit, fill me. So let's end right now. If you're tired of hell winning all around you, let's invite the spirit of God into us, into our marriages, into our finances, into our lives, into our friendships, into our families, into our church services. It's a spirit of God empower us. And do you know why we can ask as Christians?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because we have the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Amen? Amen. Let's bow our heads and let's pray right now. Heavenly father, we pray right now with the keys that you have given us, with the authority that you have given us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We ask in Jesus name for the spirit of God to flow through us and empower us right now. Holy Spirit fill our marriages with love, grace and forgiveness. Lord, fill our relationships with our children with patience and wisdom and counsel. Lord, for those of us who are single, Lord, I pray for protection and guidance and true family and true friends at this church that would support them as they try to live as light in a dark world. Holy Spirit right now, we pray for your power and we ask this in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Good word, man. Good word.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now what a word for us today and we pray and hope that you this week would walk in the power of God as you receive his holy spirit. And one of the ways that we get to experience this almost every day is through the sandals church app. I know that might be a crazy thing to hear, but as we give ourselves to daily rhythms like scripture and prayer, we get to experience not just the presence of God in our lives but his power as well. And so this Giving Tuesday, we are calling all of our church and our audience to consider supporting the work of the Sandals Church app. It's a new device, a new tool that we're using to help people step into daily rhythms and experience the power of God in their everyday lives.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so would you consider taking a moment and praying about how you are, led to support that work? And to do so, you can go to sandalschurch.com/givingtuesday. Grace and peace.