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
Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is Zac, and I'm part of the team here at Sandals Church. We're so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Fredo teaching from our series, the gospel according to Matthew. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:One day, in the not too distant future, we will all wake up to the realization that we have become a certain kind of person, a certain kind of friend, a certain kind of parent, a certain kind of spouse, a certain kind of neighbor, a certain kind of coworker. And who we become won't be the result of us trying really, really hard or our circumstances. It will be our rabbi. Rabbi? Yes.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Your rabbi. Because every single one of us is a disciple. We are all following someone or something. And in this new year, whether you realize it or not, we are all aiming our lives at some particular direction. And that direction is very informed by who your rabbi is.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so let me just ask, do you know who your rabbi is? Who your teacher is? Who has your voice? Because when Jesus walked this earth for 33 years, his primary invitation wasn't listen to me, consider what I'm saying, or even believe in me. His primary invitation were 2 simple words that radically changed everything, follow me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:To 2 groups of brothers, he said, follow me. To a tax collector punching in for the Galactic Empire at the time, he said, follow me. To a demonized sex worker, he said, follow me. To a religious leader who came in the middle of the night, he said, follow me. And to the young, successful, wealthy leader of his day, he said, follow me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now in the 1st century, this kind of invitation was summarized in a single word, discipleship. And this is precisely what our mission is here at Sandals Church in 2025. It's a new year with the same old mission, discipleship, Where we take up the greatest invitation that Jesus or anyone else can offer us and we reorganize all of who we are on our lives around this particular rabbi, this particular Jesus, where his way of life now becomes our way of life. Now why? Because I would make the case that even 2000 years after he walked this earth there was still no other human being worth following quite like Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:No other one, man had a college education or Jesus never had a college education yet there are more schools that are named and started after him. He never traveled more than 2,000 or 200 miles, excuse me, away from his hometown and yet his name is globally acknowledged. He never wrote a book and yet more words have been pen to paper to try to explain and understand his life more than anyone else in human history. He never sought fame, popularity, the massive crowds, and yet more people on a weekly basis gather to worship this person, Jesus. And so today, we begin a new teaching series called the gospel according to Matthew.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Real fancy with that title. Right? The gospel according to Matthew, where we are going to, for the next year or so, carefully walk through this biography of Jesus verse by verse, allowing his life and his teachings to shape who we are. And so I want to encourage you wherever you are watching this, when you come to Sandals Church, bring a Bible. We're going old school.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Bring your Bibles. We're gonna have notes for you available to take and and to kind of follow along. And listen, this is going to be a long series. And I say that because we might start this series and you got a toddler, we're gonna finish it, they'll be in college. Right?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:There's a good chance Jesus comes back before we finish going through the gospel of Matthew. But that is okay because some of the best things in our lives come slowly. Yes. That's right. Now to help us, I'm gonna quit and Tarantino this thing by starting with the end in the beginning.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And the reason why we do that is because oftentimes when you begin with the end in mind, you have a vision for where you're going this year. So that the very last words of Jesus become our first priority in our lives in this new year. And so with that in mind, would you stand with me if you are willing and able for the reading of God's word, as we read from Matthew chapter 28, beginning in verse 16, we write this or we read this from Matthew's gospel. Then the 11 disciples left for Galilee going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But some of them doubted. Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this, I am with you always even to the end of the age. This is God's word.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Let's pray together. Heavenly father, as we have gathered in this place, we pause in prayer to recognize that you are here with us too. So we ask now that as Jesus said, as your word is spoken, God you would speak. And that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might become all that you have for us in Jesus. We pray these things in his name.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Amen. Amen.
Dani Crowley:We are so glad that you are with us today. If this message has served you in any way or you would like to be a part of the work that we are doing here at Sandals Church, I wanna invite you to give today. You can do that by going to give.sc@anytime. And for right now, let's get right back into the message with pastor credo.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Amen. Amen. You guys may be seated. You know it is not lost on me that because of somebody else's obedience to the very words that we just read, I am a disciple of Jesus today. Come on.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Was 21 years old, I got a phone call from my closest friend, Donovan, and he was calling me to tell me that he was going to be baptized. Now me knowing Donovan's life very well, I was a bit surprised to hear Donovan was going to be baptized. But he went on to talk about how, he and his girlfriend had been going to church and he's following Jesus now. And the reason why he was calling me to tell me about his baptism was because he knew that I went to the Christian school, so he thought I might have some insight as to what he was about to do in getting baptized. The problem there was that I was not following Jesus at all, so I had very little to offer him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But what became clear was that he was serious about this, and part of me was curious like, well bro are you are you going to church because of your girlfriend or because of Jesus? Then it became really clear to me that the answer there was just yes. He was gonna be following Jesus though. And I am grateful that it was out of his obedience to the words that we just read that I am a disciple of Jesus today. The words that we just read, whether you realize it or not, were a catalyst that sparked a flame of God's movement all throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the rest of the Middle East, into into, you know, North Africa, and then eventually made its way here into the western part of the world.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Your life right now, if you are a follower of Jesus, is the direct result of somebody else obeying the words that we just read. And so I wanna ask us as we begin our time, as you take notes, is this, who might become a disciple of Jesus because of your obedience to these words of Jesus? Think about that. Who in 2025 is going to become a disciple because of your obedience to these words? Now for some of you that might feel a bit, you know, intense and harsh, like I'm I'm no missionary.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I don't like to share my faith. This is very new to me, but I just want to share this. Every single human being has what I would refer to as a missional gene. We all have a missional gene. In other words, there is something inside of us that wants to share especially when we have been the recipients of good things.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In other words, there's a natural impulse in all of us that likes to share with people so that they can experience the goodness that we also have experienced. Case in point, when you see a great movie, what do you tend to do afterward? Talk about it. Like all the time I've read, have you seen it yet? You've seen Wicked yet?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Have you seen Moana 2 yet? They miss Lin Manuel, like, and it shows because the music bad. Right? Whatever the case is, when you see something you you share about it. And then if you're like me, you get mad like, yo, you sure I haven't seen the movie yet?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Like, what is wrong with your life? You haven't seen this yet. The same is true when you read a good book. Yeah. You give it to someone.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:When you go to a great restaurant, you talk about what you had and and why they gotta go there. Right? This is the natural impulse. When your sports teams are winning, you share about it. My team is not right now, so I have nothing to say about the Lakers, but there's a natural impulse in all of us to share out of the goodness that we're experiencing from something, and this is the impulse that leads us to live on mission.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now what I wanna do is just to kinda carefully walk through the passage that we just read and and just make some kind of, observations and notes to help us understand this this grand thing that we have come to know as the great commission. And so we begin first in verse 16. You'll notice there it says, then the 11 disciples left for Galilee going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. The 11 disciples minus Judas, we know what happened. But what's beautiful is that they go to Galilee, the same place where they met Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Where it all began for them, that's where they're returning to. And then it says, when they saw him, the resurrected Jesus, they they worshiped him. And then I love that Matthew notes that while some were worshiping, others doubted. Think about this, they're in front of the resurrected Jesus who just has conquered death. He's risen from the grave and some are there seeing him and they still have questions.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This is a great reminder to all of us that both worshipers and doubters can become disciples. And and your questions don't have to drive you away from Jesus, they can actually draw you closer to Jesus. And so wherever you are at today in your relationship to Jesus, you are invited to become a disciple wherever you happen to be. And the one thing that I'm learning as I grow as a Christian, my questions grow with me as well. And oftentimes, what I find to be beautiful about life is that when Jesus doesn't give me the answers I need, he gives me something just a little bit better, and that's himself.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Yep. That's himself. Worshippers and doubters, wherever you're at today, whatever you're carrying, whatever your questions are, bring them with you as you follow Jesus. Bring them with you. Because you notice Jesus just responds to all of them.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:There in verse 18, we we read this. He came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. All authority. All authority. Now the the the commission that we're gonna read in verse 19 and 20 is meaningless if verse 18 isn't true.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In other words, the commission is dependent upon the claim that Jesus in fact is lord and that he does in fact have all authority over everything. Now what's important for us to know is the phrase all authority. In other words, what Jesus is saying is he just doesn't have all power, he has all authority. Yes. Meaning to have power is you have the ability to do something, but to have authority means that you have the right to do that as well.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This is an important difference and Jesus is saying I have all authority. It is within my right to do what I want as Lord. And that's good news for us. You know, one way I think about this is as a massive NBA fan, I love watching basketball games except when the Lakers are terrible, which is most of the time now. But NBA players have an incredible physical power, incredible athleticism.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They shoot, they dunk, which I would love to be able to do before I hit 40, so pray for me. But they have this beautiful power, but listen, this power doesn't allow them to do whatever they want. That power is guided by an authority in the hands of someone who's carrying a whistle. The players start and stop their powerful play on the command of a whistle. So even though a player like LeBron James has all of the physicality you can possibly want, he's got all the fan support, he's got a Nike Shudel for crying out loud, and all the ref has is a whistle, but that's all he needs.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He has authority to control power. And that's what Jesus is saying, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He not only has the ability to do what he wants, he has the right to do what he wants. This friends is a good reason why we should be courageous in becoming his disciples and inviting others to do so. He says all authority in heaven.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In other words, it's not just, you know, the heavenly bodies, the the the planets, the solar system, the the black holes, right? But heavenly beings, spiritual beings, angels, and demons all submit to Jesus. On earth, it's not just land and sea, but it's people and people groups all submit to Jesus. And the very proof that this claim is true is that Jesus is alive to make this claim. He conquered death which is why he can make this claim.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He was betrayed, arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced, beaten, and then crucified and buried, but God raised him from the dead. Come on now. And so someone who has just conquered death is for sure trustworthy to say, all authority is mine now. All authority belongs to me. And it's from that particular position where he begins to invite us in.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Verse 19, he says, therefore go and make disciples of all nations. So you and I go not in our authority, not in our name, but in his. And I love what translators have have noted about this phrase go. A better way to understand that is actually to see it as in your going, make disciples. In other words, in your in your life, in the way that you live your life, make disciples, which is a good reminder to us that, you know, living as a disciple is not something you add to your life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Living as a disciple is your life. Thank you. Amen. Living on mission is not something you add to your life. Living on mission is your life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It is what we do. As as you go, as you live, in your going make disciples. What Jesus is actually making abundantly clear is that every single human being is already living on mission. In the way that they speak, in the way that they spend their money, in what they share about, what they post, you and I are already living on mission. The question is what news are you sharing?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And is it the best news? Is it the good news about, you know, an essential oils business plan or cold plunging? The good news about eating in a caloric deficit or sleeping 8 hours a day? Like, what good news is your life declaring to the world? Now as we continue what's important for us to know is that in this particular great commission, the make disciples of all nations is the primary command here to make disciples.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The word disciple is the word in Greek. Can you guys say that? We don't have a great English translation, but it's literally the word learner or student or apprentice. In other words, a disciple is someone who is learning to reorganize their entire life around their teachings of their rabbi, which is why I asked, who is your rabbi? How are you reorganizing your life and who is directing that?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because that's what we're invited to do. To become a disciple is someone who makes a decision that I will no longer have myself at the center of everything I do and am, but Jesus will become the center. And then I begin to just restructure everything else around that. Now what's great about this kind of flow in verse 19 and 20 is that there's a great kind of progression to this commission. The going or the in your going is really the the work of evangelizing, sharing.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then Jesus moves us into a place of establishing. Once you've evangelized and shared your faith and someone's ready to make a decision, you establish them as he says here by baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Now what's critical about this is the phrase in the name of. In his day and age, remember he was speaking to people living under Roman rule and oppression. You were to live in the name and for the honor and the glory of Rome and Caesar.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So then to be baptized in that day meant that you now were living in the name and honor and glory of somebody else. The Holy Trinity, the Godhead, father, son and Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul would develop this beautiful idea of in the name of or in Christ, and it's this idea of union. That is to say that all that you are is now in Jesus Christ. So that everything that is true of Jesus now becomes true of you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And you declare that through baptism. You and him are 1. You belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to you. When you really think about it, to be baptized is to pledge your allegiance to Christ and nothing else. That's right.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Which is why when we deal with the tensions in our country or any other country, the first call of the Christian is to remember your baptism. Remember who you belong to. You've already pledged your allegiance and it's to Jesus. It's to him. You've been baptized in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He goes on to share then that from this place of both evangelizing and establishing, you now have a moment of equipping them. He says, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. Listen to in today's world, there are a lot of ways and reasons and methods and gimmicks that people will use and churches will use to draw people into their services. But at the end of the day, there is one way that actually forms disciples and that is teaching the commands of Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's teaching. And that is why our aim is here at Sandals to bring the brilliance, life, love, and power of him always to the forefront of what we're doing. When we invite you to become a disciple here, we invite you to shape all that you are around the teachings of Jesus. Not just to learn them mentally as if there's information here. But notice what he says, to obey.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So this is not just a matter of teaching for the sake of information, but this is teaching for the sake of formation and transformation. This isn't about an embodied experience, where you're not just focused on what you know about Jesus, but who you are becoming in Jesus. And he's very specific on the all. All that I have commanded. Meaning as a church we have no business editing the scriptures.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We have a responsibility to teach everything. As the Apostle Paul said, all scripture is God breathed and it's profitable for teaching, correction, rebuke, and the training in righteousness, so that the man or woman of god may be fully equipped. That's our aim and our focus. Right? Teaching for the sake of obedience.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now that reminds me of, a number of years ago, Ashley and I were trying to, teach our kids how to properly ride their scooters through the neighborhood. This was a journey, y'all. This was a huge journey, because I remember one day in particular where I was trying to get the kids to go a certain way. I said, don't go this way, Please go this way. Stay on the curb.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Here's where it's safe. Here's how you gotta learn how, you know, the neighborhoods work in Riverside and how cars can go quickly. Go on this path, not on this path. What did they do? They ignored me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They went the other way. And they said, I know daddy, but I'll be careful. I said, don't be careful. I want you to go on this path. I know.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I'll be careful. Don't be careful. Go on this path. I said, I know. I'm gonna go this way.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I said, no. I don't want you to be careful. I want you to be obedient. I just shouted that out. And I said it because I realized that so many of us give ourselves far more to trying to be careful in our disobedience to Jesus than just plainly being obedient to Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The commission is clear. Stop wasting energy on careful disobedience, and be honest about the areas of your lives where you have just neglected plain simple obedience to the text, and what he what he's called you to do. Now I love that this commission is bookended with just a beautiful statement at the end, and be sure of this, I am with you always even to the end of the age. Even to the end of the age. You might remember that Matthew's gospel begins with the birth of Jesus when the angel announces to Mary, the virgin will become pregnant, give birth to a child, and you will call his name, what?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We're all quiet in here. Emmanuel, god with us. What a perfect way to end the gospel of Matthew as it opens with a declaration that god is with us and it ends with Jesus. Not just making a promise that I will be with you, but the declaration that I am with you. That's right.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You see, one of the great challenges for us as Christians that I'm noticing more and more as a pastor is that when we talk about God's presence, I know that we say phrases and I understand we mean well, the sentiment is meant well, but we'll sometimes say things like, God, I just want more of your presence. Why are you neglecting the words of Jesus? So they just went away from the screen. The problem isn't that we need more of Jesus, The problem is that we need more attention on the fact that he's already with us right now. That's right.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Yes. It's not an issue of presence. It's an issue of our attention to his presence. That's right. That's right.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He is with us, and it's about time as believers, if we're going to take the great commission seriously, that we take back some of the authority that we have given to our feelings to tell us whether or not we believe Jesus is in the room right now. He's here. He's present to us. The omnipotent one who claims all authority in verse 18 ends by saying, I'm also the omnipresent one who is always with you. You see, the great commission gives to this this beautiful claim that only Jesus can make, all authority is mine, followed by a command that he can only give, make disciples with his ending comfort that only he can provide.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I am with you always. I'm with you always. Now in light of that, I want us to think about a few things that I particularly believe God has to say to Sandals Church as it relates to living on mission. What does this actually look like in our daily lives? First, I wanna share this.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:To live on mission means that God will use my imperfections to accomplish his mission. In other words, the very things that you think hold you back in your life with Jesus, he actually wants to use to complete his mission. That is an astounding thing to think about. The the shortcomings, your insecurities, your inconsistencies, your imperfections are the very ways that God will display his power through your weakness and complete his mission. Think about that.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Just consider that for a second. All the ways that you write yourself off as just a bad Christian, I shouldn't be a disciple, are the very ways that God desires to complete his mission. He started this great commission without a building, without a budget, without a strategy. He started it with people. Why?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because people have always been God's strategy. Come on now. That has always been the way that he accomplishes his mission. Listen to these words from Acts chapter 4. In in in the early church breaking out with the great commission, it says the members of the council This is now, religious leaders facing the disciples as they're going out sharing the message of Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It says the members of the councils were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. Why were they amazed? Why? Because weeks earlier, these same men betrayed Jesus and ran and hid. Now they're bold.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For they could see that they were ordinary men, that makes me laugh, they're ordinary men with no special training in the scriptures. No special training in the scriptures. For those of you who don't know scripture, can't memorize anything, no special training in the scriptures. However, it does say this, they can tell that these men had been with Jesus. That's the goal here.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So I don't know my Bible, why send me? You're going anyways. I got too many, you know, inconsistencies. God's still sending you anyways. You you gotta come to terms with the fact that Jesus knew exactly what he was getting when he picked you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He knew everything about it. You know, one of the things that I tell, I remember telling a student back when I was a high school teacher, they said, Mr. Ramos, back in the day when they called me Mr. Ramos. He said, can you explain to me this idea that God knows everything about me?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I said, yeah. I take great comfort in that because that reminds me that nothing I do, say or become will ever surprise Jesus. And he still loves me. He only uses broken people to fulfill his mission. And I love that the Bible is not a book full of sanitized stories with sanitized people who do God's will.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:There's some messed up individuals. Embrace your imperfections. Those are the very things that God wants to use. Here's the good news for San Jose Church, like imperfect disciples can still make real disciples. You're proof of it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:An imperfect disciple helped make you a disciple of Jesus, who will then be an imperfect disciple. Like that cycle will just continue. Right? Secondly, to live on mission means now that I join God in the work that he is already doing. To live on mission means that you get to join God in what he's already at work doing.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The great commission started long before you and I, and it will continue long before us. You can argue the great commission started in the book of Genesis, where God is a missionary God. He is constantly sending himself to people who need him. Jesus said it like this there in John chapter 5, listen to these words. Jesus replied, my father is always working and so am I.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:My father is always working and so am I. He's always consistently at work. And this is important for us because often we, we can act like to live on mission means that I'm taking God where he's not. And listen, you and I don't take God anywhere. We join him where he's already at.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I learned this the hard way, I was 21 years old, zealous Christian, you know I've been a Christian for about 18 minutes, and I carried a small Bible, a small Bible, a little black Bible. It had the verse, John 17 17 inscribed on it. I would keep it in my back pocket. Even at work, in my first job, I was working at Sports Authority. That place closed down, maybe because of me, but, I would just, in all of my zeal and misguided passion, just argue with people constantly.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I felt like I was God's missionary in these places, as if he wasn't already at work in their lives. And I'd be up in the break room talking to people, and I'd ask, you know, what are you doing this weekend? Because you know, I'm gonna get them to go to church. And I just sit there and wait like, I can't wait to tell you, come to church, come to church. And they would just be so turned off by this approach.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And it was because, you know, in my foolishness, I had this understanding that God needed me to be everything in that moment. And I was unable to discern the ways that he was already at work in their lives. And this is out of a kind of arrogance, where we think we gotta take God somewhere. And the danger here at Sandals Church is if we don't embrace living on mission as a way of joining God, then there's a few postures we're at risk at taking that I don't want us to take in 2025. The first posture is this, that we would be apart from the world.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Here's what I mean by that. Some of us come out of holiness traditions that tell us holiness is best described by what you don't do and who you don't associate with, but holiness is better understood not as what you abstain from, but what you give yourself to. Jesus was the holiest and he was constantly close to sinners. You gotta wrestle with that. Secondly, another unhealthy posture is to kind of be, you know, above the world.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Where where you kind of see yourself as a superior person and and you almost start to treat people who you wanna know coming to Jesus, but you treat them like projects. And listen, I as a pastor and even as a follower of Jesus long to see our community know, love and follow Jesus. But people know when you're treating them like a project y'all. So don't take a posture of being above them. Lastly, the the last unhealthy posture is is one of just being against them.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Where what you think it means to live on mission is you just share and declare everything that you are not for. I'm against this. I'm against that. And that never gives you a chance to get close enough to someone and actually share well what you are about, and the things that you are for, and and what you actually, you know, can establish as like common ground with someone. But but when you and I change our and like shift our thinking, and see that to live on mission means that we join God, you you open up the world.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And you see that, oh wow, he does have authority everywhere. And he is constantly at work, and I get to be a part of that. Lastly, the the last particular word that I believe God has for Sentil's church as it relates to living on mission is this, to live on mission means that wherever I am, God has sent me there. That's right. That's good.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Wherever you are right now, God has sent you there. That's pretty simple, but think about that. Wherever you are at right now, God has sent you there. Listen to these words from from John 20. Jesus in talking to his disciples, he said, again I said, peace be with you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:As the father has sent me, so I am sending you. Jesus had this sent identity about him, whereas if he acted as if wherever he went, he was sent there. In another place he says, I have to proclaim the good news of God for that is what I was sent to do. Another verse he says, whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. Wherever you happen to be in your life right now, whether you like it or not, you have been sent there with a purpose.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now there's 3 particular locations where I think this happens. 1st, to live on mission is to embrace that god is sending me to those who are nearest me, nearest you. Who are the people closest to you in your life? Just the other weekend, it was Saturday morning, and it's a perfect time for me to kinda go slow and, take in some scripture, drink some coffee, read a little bit. And y'all, I was I was in a beautiful moment with the Lord at the table.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Coffee was hitting, felt the spirit in my bones, and then my daughter walks up to me. And she says, daddy, I want Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I'm like, well, mama girl, I'm with Jesus right now. You know, and she asked me again for, like, the 5th time. So I reluctantly get up, you know, make her cereal, and I throw a fit, you know, because I want her to know that she really bothered me in my time with God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I sit back down, and then the spirit just convicted me. And so listen, Fredo, part of loving me, part of being on mission must include pouring cinnamon toast crunch for your daughter. In other words, this grand vision of living on mission can never get so big that you ignore those who are nearest to you. If I'm not ready to take a moment and love people nearest to me in the simplest form, then I am not ready to go and do something grand for God. Who is nearest to you?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:God is sending you to them. If you're married right now, do you know your first mission is to your spouse? That's right. If If you have kids your first mission is to your children. A great missional place is that roommate of yours, who you're ready to kick out, you know, it's a new year, get a new place.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But, man, imagine those who are nearest to you receiving the loving presence of god through you as you observe them. Secondly, god has also sent me to my neighbors. I'll be I'll be very honest and and pretty vulnerable with you guys. I think a big project for me in 2025, just as a person, is to become more neighborly. I am convicted regularly by the spirit of God when I get home, how little of my neighbors I know.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You know, I'll drive home my jeep, wave at some of them, they don't wave at me. Why? Because they don't know me, and I don't know them. And I have felt over and over and over to the point that I've been praying about and I feel safe enough to share with you guys that that I have some work to do in my own neighborhood, to be vulnerable, to take time to ask my neighbors questions, to to be hospitable and and welcome them in, and I would imagine that God has something beautiful in store for Sandals Church as we embrace the practice of being hospitable to our physical neighbors. Your first mission trip begins as you open your front door.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Get to know your neighbors. What would happen to our church if every single member, if every single disciple of Jesus at Sandals Church disciple the neighbor. Come on. Just a neighbor. Can you imagine what God might do?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And lastly, where you're being sent to is is clearly your workplace. You know, just say that I'm in the lobby here at Hunter Park, and I was talking with the individual who who made it so clear that they would love to work at Sandals Church. And they said, because I wanna work for God. I said, brother, you already work for God. In fact, I kinda envy your job.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because whether you've been working somewhere for, you know, 2 days or you're gonna be there for 2 decades, You're not just there for a paycheck, someone in your workplace needs the saving love of Jesus. And wherever you are at, God has sent you to that person. So be thinking about ways to live on mission in your workplace, Ways to be open? Ways to ask questions? And as we end our time, I wanna offer just one simple practice just to get us thinking.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because again, we're invited not just to know the commands of Jesus, but to obey them. What does this look like practically? Tim Chester in his book, A Meal with Jesus, says there are 3 times in the gospels where we get the statement, the son of man came. The son of man came. The son of man came.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The first time the son of man came to seek and save the lost. The second time the son of man came not to be served, but to serve. And then thirdly the son of man came, do you know, eating and drinking. Tim Chester says, if those first two are about what Jesus wanted to do, seek and save the lost, serve, that last one is about how Jesus did it. Eating and drinking.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:As you try to embrace what God is inviting you to do as a disciple and how you can begin to make disciples, think about sharing your table. Open your table and you will be amazed at what a meal, the practice of hospitality can do in someone's life as you discover who they are and where God is already at work in them. May we as disciples meet Jesus and other people at the table this year. Let's pray. God there is so much work to be done, but would you help us now in this moment to know that we don't do it on our own?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Your power is here, your presence is here, and so would you send us out with courage now to be your disciple, to allow your words in your life to shape who we become, and for us then to open our doors to our family, to our neighbors, and to the world so that we might see this great commission become a great reality. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.
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.