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 Zach, 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 Matthew Stephen Brown from our series, the gospel 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 Matthew Stephen Brown:How many of you guys have ever read the bible and been confused? Raise your hands. Okay? Now, this one, you're not gonna wanna be honest. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How many of you ever read the bible and it felt a little boring? Yeah, like, 3 honest people, everybody's like, no Lord, I know Pastor, I get everything every time out of God's word. Look, there are some things when we read in ancient manuscripts that are very very difficult and they don't feel like they make a lot of sense to us today. But, here's what I want you to know about God's word. Number 1, this is God's word to us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So, the bible that we have is the bible that God meant for us. So, even when there's stuff that's confusing or we don't get, God thought it was important enough to put in this book, and so we need to do our best to try to understand it. And so, today we're gonna look at the genealogy of Jesus. Now, how many of you don't know your own genealogy? Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, if you're American, you're like, I'm a mutt, I don't know, somehow I came over here. I mean, for half my life I told people I was Italian, I am 0% Italian according to 23me.com. You know what I'm saying? I have no Italian whatsoever, but I would tell people, the reason I'm loud is I'm Italian, which is kind of an insult to Italians everywhere. But, apparently I'm Irish.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So, but the genealogy of Jesus is something I think that we read and we we kinda just skip if we're honest. We just kinda skip it. Maybe we read it once and we don't get it. And if I'm completely honest with you, which, you know, is the vision of our church, I was kinda hoping the campus pastors had to preach the genealogy of Jesus. And so I actually was texting with the team this week, I said, is it Claude up?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I feel like Claude is supposed to preach this. I texted Claude. Claude, I think you're up this week. But no, it's me. And they all the campus pastors and Claude were like, thank God, Matt gets the genealogy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But, what I want you to do is not check out. You're gonna wanna check out. But, it's important because these lists of names matter, just like your name matters, and the record of your life will matter. One of the things that God's word teaches us is that God keeps records of our lives. God has a book, a book of life, a book of judgment, and a book of records.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And this is the book of the record of the life of Jesus. So, these are all the people that came before Jesus. And here's the thing, before you check out, every single one of these people had to be faithful in order to bring us Jesus. And so, there are some of you right now, you're like, well well, why does my life matter? Why does this decision matter?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why does it matter that I stay married? Why does it matter that I stay at a church? Does it really make a difference? The genealogy says, yes, it does. Whether we feel it or not, whether we feel like being faithful or not, our lives matter.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. And so, there's a lot of names in here that I may not even be able to pronounce right, but God knows their names. That's right. And their lives mattered just like your life matters. So, let's just begin with a word of prayer and let's ask God to help us as we read through a challenging text that may feel boring, but I promise at the end, I I believe that you will feel like it's powerful and it will speak to you today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray in the name of Jesus that your Holy Spirit, God, would anoint my words so that I could teach your words. God, so that you could reveal your truth to us. And, God, as we read through this long list of names, help us to understand why our journey matters. Not in bringing Jesus here, but in bringing people to Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So bless this, we pray. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. So, we're gonna start. If you have your Bible, I want you to open, your Bible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if you don't have your Bible, download the app and follow along. I'm gonna be reading out of the New Living Translation. And one of the things I want you to do each and every week is bring your Bible. It doesn't have to be this big. This Bible actually is something I bought like 30 years ago, and it has a a point, you know, in a couple of minutes here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna tell you why I have this big one. But it doesn't have to be something you hit somebody with. So, it can be something a little bit smaller. But this is the one I bought in the early 90s and I'll tell you about that in a second. But I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1 verse 1.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And it begins with these words, this is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah. Now, one of the things, if you spend 5 minutes on TikTok, you'll find somebody that says nowhere in the Bible does the word Bible occur. It just did right there in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1. The word record is Byblos. This is the Bible of the life of Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Bible simply means book, but for somebody that tells you there's no The Bible never occurs in the Bible. It just did. There you go. So, this is the record of the genealogy of Jesus. A descendant of David and of Abraham.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. And if you're already lost, that's okay. That's why we're starting right here. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron was the father of Ram. Go Rams, amen? Ram, I'm gonna try on this one, was the father of Amminadad. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amminadad was the father of Nahashan. Nahashan was the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. And Obed was the father of Jesse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Jesse, if you've been in church, was the father of King David. There's a name maybe that you recognize. David was the father of Solomon whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow, listen to this, the widow of Uriah. Okay? Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Am I doing good? Abijah was the father of Asa and he was the father of Jehoshaphat. Not a good name if you're naming a kid, I wouldn't go with that one. He was the father of Jehoram, Jehoram was the father of Uzziah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Uzziah was the father of Jotham Jotham was the father of Ahaz We're almost done. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. If you've been with me in Israel, we've been through his tunnel. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh Manasseh was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josiah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Josiah was the father of here we go Jehoiakim and his brothers born in the time of the exile to Babylon. After Babylon the exile, Jehoiakim was the father of Shealtiel. And I didn't cuss. Okay. I did the best I could.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He was the father of Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel was the father of Abidad. Abidad was the father of Elohim. Elohim was the father of Azor. And some of you are like, I'm already lost.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're almost there. Azar was the father of Zadok and Zadok was the father of Achim and Achim was the father of Elud. Elud was the father of Eleazar and Eleazar was the father of Matan, which is probably my name, maybe not. Matan was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're almost there. Hold on. The husband of Mary, we're so close and Mary gave birth to Jesus. Some of you are like, okay. I recognize a name.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Who is called the Messiah. And those listed above include 14 generations from Abraham to David, and from 14 from David to the ex to the Babylonian exile, and 14 from Babylonian exile to the Messiah. K? And you just got through it. You just got through the lineage of Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? And let me say this, to become the disciple Jesus has called you to be, you're gonna have to get through some text that you don't feel like you can get through. But let me tell you why this list of long names, boring names, names that are hard to pronounce, are so important for you to know. Becoming the disciple Jesus has called me to be, listen to me, it starts with a choice to follow God. Every single name that you read, these are people that chose not to follow their culture, not to follow their desires.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:These are people, whether you know them or not, or heard of them or not, chose to follow God. Listen to me, unimportant forgotten names matter to God.
Speaker 3:Come on now. Yeah.
McKay Vandenberg:Hey, Sandals Church. Thank you so much for joining us for today's message. I just wanted to take a brief moment to invite you into the work that Sandals Church is doing. One way that you can do that is by going to give.sc. For now, let's get back into our message.
Speaker 3:Come on now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You may not be famous. You may not have a 1000000 followers on TikTok. Your friends may not know you, but God knows you and he's keeping a list, and you wanna be on that list. These people, their lives mattered. They may not have been famous, they may not have been wealthy, and none of them by the way were perfect.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But they all made a choice to follow God. Matthew 11, listen to this. This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah. A descendant of David and Abraham. Now we're gonna focus on Abraham, because Abraham didn't know God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Abraham, for all accounts, wasn't Jewish. He was a Middle Eastern man from another city who met God, heard God, and decided to follow God. His name is not even Abraham yet, his name is Abram. That's his name. Now the Lord said to Abram, listen to this, in Genesis 12:1:4.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. So I want you to look at this. Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. If you are going to be a person of faith, you're gonna have to follow God in the dark.
Speaker 3:Come on. Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Come on. You're gonna have to follow him in the dark. The Lord doesn't always show you where he's taking you. That's faith. That's faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We follow God by faith, not by sight. So he tells Abraham, I want you to follow me to a place you have not seen. Abraham had not seen the Promised Land. He did not know where the Promised Land was. Here's one of the amazing things about Israel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you did not know this. Astronauts from Space tell us that there are only 2 countries on Earth that can be identified by their borders. So when the astronauts are in space and they're looking down at the earth, and this beautiful blue ball I know some of you are like, wow, okay. Well, send your emails later. They're looking at this beautiful blue ball.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There are only 2 countries which boundaries can be distinguished. 1 is because of man, and the other is because of God. The first country that can be easily identified is North and South Korea. North Korea has no lights, it's completely black. South Korea is lit up like a candle.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they can see that from space. Oh, there's Korea. That's North Korea, that's South Korea. The other country that can be seen from space is Israel. Israel's borders can be seen from space because Israel is green and its rivers flow out.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And where it stops, there is desert all around. So listen to me, from Heaven, God could see the green that He was gonna take Abram to. Abram's a man of the desert. He's not in the green. He's in the sand.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And God says, look, I'm gonna take you to some place that you can't see, but from my perspective, I can see it. And so here's the thing about your life. You're gonna get fed up following God, you're gonna say, you know what? This is the There's no way Israel can be better. It always is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It always is. And from God's perspective, he could always see that Israel was a land flowing with milk and honey. It was a beautiful place. And astronauts tell us that to this day. It's the only country where its borders can be identified from space and they can be identified because it's beautiful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he says, and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. So that you will be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will dishonor those who dishonor you, and I will curse them. And you and all of the families of the earth will be blessed because of you. And here's what I want you to see, Abram was called and look at this, he's gonna bless him, he's gonna call him, look at this next verse. And so Abram went, he was obedient.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Abram went as the Lord had told him. Isn't that crazy? He decided to be obedient. He decided to follow. Where is your choice today?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like it doesn't matter if you've heard from God, it matters are you following God? Have you made the choice to follow? Now here's why I have this big, I mean, we can call it ugly Bible. Can you call Bible ugly? I don't know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, I don't know why I bought blue and silver. It's a blue Bible with silver writing. You know, I was in my twenties, I thought it was cool. But you know, I got fed up with my life, and if you're a young person, I want you to listen to me. Give your life to Jesus while there's still time to fix it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I was fed up with my life, and I'm gonna read what I wrote. I went to a Bible bookstore, I know they don't have those anymore, but, there was no Amazon back then. So I got on my horse and buggy. And I went to a bookstore and I bought, this is the first bible I bought for myself. I wanna encourage you guys, we have free bibles that we'll give to you, but I wanna encourage you, go spend your own money and buy this for yourself.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This was a big moment in my life. And, you know, back in the days, you you presented a Bible to people and so I didn't know what to write. So, it's presented to Matthew Stephen Brown by himself. That's what I wrote. I presented this to myself, by myself.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:For the sake of strengthening his walk, and then you're supposed to write the date. This is what I wrote, on a depraved and empty day in his life. I was in a bad place. I needed to make a change. Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't know how to change my life, but I knew what would change my life. And I bought this. And I've had this for over 40 years. I wanna encourage you to get a Bible and start your journey today. And start walking us through the Book of Matthew, and we're gonna walk through difficult passages, we're not gonna skip anything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, we probably just went through the hardest one. I can't pronounce half the names in that list. Some of you checked out like 3 times. I saw you in the studio, you're like, ah. You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But listen to me, we gotta do this. Because their names mattered, and listen to me, your name matters. And listen to what God said to Abraham, I will make a name for you. Think about that. Every single one of you, especially young people, you want all these followers and all this attention, you're gonna have to choose between faith and fame.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Abraham had to walk away from everything he knew to walk in faith. And I wanna encourage you guys to do that. So, truly choosing to follow Jesus will change who I am. It will change who I am. We're starting this journey today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you will join us, I promise you God will change you. I will change you. He will change you. Joshua 2415. Let's take a look at this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Joshua says this, choose what day? This day. Don't put God off till tomorrow. Choose this day, whom what? You will serve.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You see, following God is not just about believing, it's about serving. It's about identifying yourself as a servant. And that's hard for us. We want to be served but we don't want to serve. But that's what a disciple is, a disciple is a servant to the king.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you gotta make that decision today. So becoming the disciple that Jesus has called me to be, is supported by spiritual partnerships. Some of you are like, you're so afraid. Well, I I I can't do this alone. You don't have to do this alone.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're not called to do this alone. So God called Abraham alone, but look at this verse, Genesis 124 through 5. So Abraham went by himself and followed God. No, that's not what it says. So, Abraham went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him, and Abraham took Sarah his wife.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He didn't go alone. And listen to me, if you try to live out your spiritual walk by yourself, you may not make it. Abram knew I need people with me, I cannot go alone. He took his nephew Lot and he took his wife, and they followed God together. I wanna encourage you to seek out spiritual partnerships.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now, I wanted to write relationships here, but I want you to think about relationships with God as partnerships. So let's talk, if you're a single person, let's talk about the biggest mistake you could make as a single person. Listen to me, marry the wrong person. Many single people today would rather be miserable than alone. Don't make that mistake.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The most important decision outside of following God is who you marry. So when we read through this list, ladies, there's 4 women that are mentioned in this list. 2000 years ago, women didn't count for much, but God put them in this list because their choices changed not only your life, but their lives. And all of their choices involved men. Who were they going to be with?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And some of you ladies, well, all men are terrible. Jesus was a man. Is he terrible? Maybe you need to change where you're shopping. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If all the fruit is rotten, pick a new store. So what happened in this list? It talks about a man by the name of Boaz. Okay? It says, Solomon was the father of Boaz whose mother was Rahab.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you're like, oh my gosh, I I don't know who any of these people were. But Boaz was the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth. And Ruth had to make a decision. She lost her husband, she lost her livelihood, but she decided to stay faithful. She decided to stay connected.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She decided to stay with her family. And ultimately, listen to me ladies, she picked a little older man who was a little wiser. The young guys, not so wise. Not so wise. I know they look better but they're not smarter.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Ladies, listen to me. Wait for your Boaz. If you're going to be a disciple, do not compromise who you marry. Wait for your Boaz. Some of you have fallen in love with his evil brothers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Did you know Boaz has brothers? He has 4 brothers. Here we go. Brother number 1, look at his dumbass. Ass.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You married him. Boaz has another brother. Listen to this guy, lazy ass. Don't marry him. He's got more brothers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at this nice one. Brother number 3. Lying ass. Can I get an amen? Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Oh, there's one more brother. Look at this guy. Cheap Naz. Now, if you just came to church, these aren't actually real people in the bible, I just made them up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But listen to me, Ruth, a Moabite woman, and we'll talk about that in a second, changed her story because she was changing what she was looking for in a husband. God will never call you to compromise your most intimate community. And your most intimate community is your spouse. Don't compromise in that. Don't do it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you're like, well I can I can change cheating ass? No, you can't. I can make dumbass smarter. No, you can't. No, you can't.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen. Find your Boaz. I was at a meeting, at Sandals Church, and we were gathered together and I met this gal. She's in her late thirties. She's been single her whole life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And she told me Pastor Matt, people kept saying God's gonna bring the man. God's gonna bring the man. And she said, but I I was 30, and then I was 35. And she said, now I'm pushing 40. And she said, I almost gave up and I heard over and over again that God would bring a man.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She joined our ushers team. At Sandals, collecting an offering. And she found her Boaz, who led the offering team. And they're getting married this March. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't give up. Wait for your Boaz. Come on. Alright. Friends.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Friends. Some of you are best friends with dumbass, you know what I'm saying? Lying ass, you know what I'm saying? These are your buddies. First Corinthians 1533.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at this verse. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins what? Good morals. You see, I will become like the people I choose to surround myself with.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This week, I was at the doctor's. I was getting a spinal injection. I've been having all kinds of back pain and ultimately they made the decision that they needed to do a steroid steroid shot in my spine. I'm lying there, I'm all uncomfortable, I'm super nervous. Why?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because they're gonna stick a needle in my spine. And, my doctor is talking about all the fun he had in Vegas. And all the nurses are laughing, he's gambling till 5 in the morning, and I'm sitting there thinking, is this the kind of man I want to stick a needle in my spine? And you know why that is? Character matters.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, it it bothers me. I I want people that are put together. I want people that are morally focused. Like, I don't care if you got through medical school, you're still a dumb you know what? Right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right. Right. If you're spending all your time and wasting all your time at Vegas. I'm like, what are you doing? I was so nervous.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I let him get through it and praise God, he sucked the needle in the right place. You know what I'm saying? But it made me nervous, since some of you guys should look like that. You know, if this guy's a big idiot, and you're hanging out with cheating ass, lying ass, you know, and dumbass, and you're like, you know, you know, well they're not gonna affect me. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Maybe they already have and you just don't know it. Make sure your friends are partners that are helping you grow in your faith. You need this. Without this, you I mean, you're gonna stumble. Listen to me, every one of you gonna stumble and fall and doubt at some point in your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Your friends are either gonna pick you up in your faith, or they're going to lead you away from your faith. So you gotta decide who those friends are. And it's okay to have ministry, but don't make those people your best friends. Because they will pull you away from God. And the whole time you'll be thinking, no no no, I'm gonna lead them to God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When I bought this bible, listen to me. I lost every friend I had. Lifelong friends. I got one childhood friend that's decided to follow Jesus. He's the only friend that's still in my life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everybody else pursued everything else. I've shared the gospel with them. I've shared my calling. I went to my 10 year high school reunion, I call it the apology tour. And I told people I'm different.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I've changed. But I'm not about those things anymore. That's just not who I am. Show me your friends and I'll show you your future. There's enough people at this church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't tell me you can't find a friend at Sandals Church. There's a lot of people. Find a friend, somebody that's gonna encourage you. Get in a group for somebody that's gonna pray for you. Develop relationships, where people that are going to inspire you and help you to follow Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Next, the church. Okay? Spiritual partnerships matter. There's a lot of Christians, I hear this all over TikTok, I hear this all over social media, to be a Christian you don't have to go to church. Listen to me, that's not in the Bible anywhere.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That might be on TikTok, it's not in here. Every single time the Bible says love one another, listen to me, it's talking about the church. It's not talking about your mama, you should love her. It's not talking about your daddy, you should love him. It's not talking about your boyfriend, your mom, your your your your your husband, your wife, all of those things are anticipated.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You should love them. What makes you unique as a Christian is your love for other believers. And that you have a desire to gather in the church. And here's why, you cannot become the disciple Jesus has called you to be all by yourself. You cannot.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You will not. And here's the problem, some of you don't even know what needs to change. Everyone around you knows. But you need people to say, Hey, can we talk about this? Can we get real about this?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's why our vision is being real. We create a safe place where we can talk about what needs to change. We don't come to church and play pretend it sandals. You see, a relationship with Jesus, listen to me, it's personal but it's not private. It's not private.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And and if you're taking notes, I really want you to think about this. Jesus does not call us to be just to become a disciple, listen to me, but he has called us to his disciples. It's not just to be a disciple, it's to be with his disciples. He never calls someone and says just follow me, just me and you. He calls every disciple to be with him and his 12.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:In Matthew 101, Jesus called his 12 disciples, listen to this, together. Together. And I want you to see this. He called His 12 disciples together and He gave, do you see the word? Them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Not one, them authority. So Jesus called his 12 disciples together and he gave them authority. What Satan is trying to do in the church today is tell believers they don't need the church. It's just you and Jesus. Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus thinks you need Jesus people. Are you like, Lord, but your people are so hard. He's like, yeah, I had Judas. Every one of you is gonna encounter a Judas, and if you never do, maybe you're Judas. He still loved him, he still cared for him, he still invited him, he still broke bread with him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He broke bread with him on the night that he betrayed him. And he gave him authority to cast out evil spirits and listeners and to heal every kind of disease. Sandals Church, we are more powerful together.
Speaker 3:Come on. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we are more more vulnerable alone. And Satan knows this. He knows this. That's why every single week, there's a spiritual battle for you to get up on Sunday or Saturday, and go to church. It's a spiritual battle, and every week you win or you lose.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Satan's like, You don't need to go, you're tired. You can just watch online, and let me say, online's great, but even if you watch online, you need to figure out a way to get community. And we have that, we have online community. We have people who gather together all over the world for the purpose of strengthening and encouraging each other. You can watch sandal sermons alone, but Jesus doesn't want you to worship alone.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He wants you to gather. You see, Jesus calls us together on purpose for a purpose. Think about all the vision that God gave me 28 years ago when I stand when I started sandal search. How much of that could I have done by myself? The answer is 0.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I couldn't have bought one building that Sandals owns by myself. I couldn't finance one building by myself. The Lord has called 1,000 and thousands of people together for the purpose of being real. To carry out his vision, his purpose and his passion. And he told me long ago, Matt, you can't do this by yourself.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You need a church. And he's brought us together. And some of you, you've been apart long enough to know the struggle of Sandals Church. And you've seen it, and you've seen God's blessings. For some of you, you're new and you need to join in the blessings of God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's just something unique and special. Going to a house of worship that you know you helped build. That you helped support, that you're a part of. It's not some architect architecturally beautiful place, it's not a museum. It's your house of worship.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Next, becoming the disciple that Jesus has called me to be is secured by the sacrifice of Jesus. When you're reading through this long list, there's something in here that just jumped right out to me. The Bible never sweeps sin under the rug. Like your family may not be willing to talk about the evil and sin that's in your family, but you know when it comes to Jesus, they just put it right out there. In Matthew 16, listen to this verse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matthew 16, it says, Jesus, excuse me, Jesse was the father of King David. Right? King David? Yay. The king.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:David was the father of Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah. Now let me give it to you in the Greek. It does not say widow in the Greek. You know what it says? Wife.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's what the Bible says, David cheated. David committed adultery. David murdered a faithful servant, Uriah, who was loyal to him and that's not swept under the rug. It's presented out there because here's the thing you need to know about Jesus. He's so holy, He can fix His relatives from the past and He can fix those who believe in Him in the future.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's who Jesus is, amen? So, it's okay. You are not your mistakes. According to God, you are like your Messiah. I love this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Bathsheba, who was the wife of Uriah. Uriah is not forgotten. David's sin is not forgotten, but it is washed away by the blood of Christ. It is. This is a beautiful verse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna give it to you in 2 translations. This is 1st Corinthians 15/21. It says, for God made Christ. Why why did Jesus come? Some of you are new to Christianity.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't get it. Why do I have to be a Christian? Why do I have to believe in Jesus? Because without Jesus, you are separated from God because of your sin. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's why he came. That's his purpose. He didn't just fix those who came after him, but those who came before him. He has fixed all things because he is the Messiah. He is the chosen one.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I wanna give this to you in the ESV, I think this one is far more beautiful in its translation. For the sake, he, that's Christ, or excuse me, God made him, that's Christ. Listen to this, to be sin. Who knew no sin, so think about that. He who knew no sin, became sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is why Jesus is so important. Think of all your sin, think about your worst moments, your worst days, your worst sins. Jesus Christ took all of that from you, and he nailed it to the cross when he died. But that's not it. Then he took all of his holiness, all of his righteousness, and he nailed it to you on the cross.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So God no longer sees your sin. When God sees you, he sees Jesus. Jesus fixes grotesque sins, even like when David cheated with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah. Man, you don't have to walk in your sin anymore, you can give it to Jesus because no matter what you've done, Jesus' blood on the cross can fix it. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What what I love about this list is man, Jesus comes from a whack family. Anybody come from a whack family? Don't raise your hands if they're sitting next to you. You know? Don't be like, Yeah mom.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. But can I, I I just want, I just want you to know why the genealogy matters? Can I just share this and set some of you free today? You don't have to be like your family. With Jesus, you're gonna become like God's family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Remember I told you there's 4 women in the genealogy? All 4 of them came from some difficult difficult situations. Tamar's the first one. She was abandoned and forgotten. She was a liar.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She deceived a man in Genesis. But because of her faith in God, this liar brought us Jesus who is the truth. She was faithful. Ruth, some of you don't know Ruth's story. She came from an incestuous Moabite family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You wanna talk about family drama? You know, like when you're, you're like We're all related. You know. Like, you get divorced and you're still family, you know what I'm saying? That's Ruth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Ruth came from an incestuous Moabite family, to bring us into the perfect family of God. Rahab. Do you know what Rahab was? She's a sex worker. A prostitute.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She was a prostitute on Earth, and brought us the Prince of Peace from Heaven. Isn't that amazing? I don't care what you've done, I don't care where you've come from, the blood of Jesus Christ can transform you and change you. You don't have to be like the sins of your family, you can become like the holiness of God's family. You can change, amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You can change. And we need to celebrate that. Becoming the disciple Jesus has called me to be, is sustained by the belief that God has a plan. I don't know where you are this week. I'll tell you where I am.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We got no power at my house. Okay? I'm suffering for the Lord. I just showered today at the church. You know what I'm saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, my wife and I, we we we just realized how privileged we are. We're like, the microwave doesn't work. Satan behind me. But you know, Southern California is suffering for those of you who watch sandals online, it's really bad. And people have lost, some of them, almost everything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I know of 1 church family in our church, they lost everything. I mean, you know, I I I I'm battling through no lights. My dog ate my wife's breakfast that I bought her this morning. But it's easy it's easy to get frazzled. And to feel like God's not watching over you and God's not caring for you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like if your life gets bad, you get 2 or 3 bad decisions, it's really easy to think, you know what? God, this whole faith thing's a joke. In Matthew 111, look at this. Josiah was the father of Jehoiakim and his brothers Look at this sentence. Born at the time of the exile to Babylon.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They got a crappy hand. That's what some of you got. You got no mom, no dad. You come from a drug addict family. Come from a broken family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, like, Lord, if you love me, I I I got a bad hand. This isn't fair. Here's the thing, what's gonna sustain you is the faith and belief that God has a plan even when you don't see it. Because let me tell you something, these guys in Babylon, they couldn't see it. They were slaves.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All their family was destroyed, killed and murdered in Jerusalem, and they were carried off as slaves to a foreign land. And in that land, they had to speak a language that wasn't Hebrew. You know what it was? Aramaic. Do you know who spoke Aramaic?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus. When Jesus came, He spoke 2 languages, Aramaic and probably Greek. And you wanna know why that was? Because Jesus wasn't just the Messiah for the Jews, He was the Messiah of the world. When He came, He came speaking foreign languages.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so all that pain, all that suffering, all that heartache. And oh, by the way, when they were in Babylon, that's when they mastered their language. That's when they mastered their Hebrew. That's when they became scholars. You see, God had to take them out of Israel to turn them into the scribes that he called them to be.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And that's the only reason that Hebrew, that that the Jewish faith was able to become a global religion. It's amazing, God has a plan. I don't know what you're going through, but I want you to know God has a plan. And then look at this next verse. Some of us just kinda skip over this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All those listed above include 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Babylonian exile, and 14 from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah. You don't think all these people in this list had bad days? Went through heartache, through suffering, through difficulty? Here is what the genealogy of Jesus says. God had a plan in every generation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The last 5 years at Sandals Church have been the most difficult of my life but you know what? God has had a plan. He's had a plan. My life will never be perfect and it will rarely go according to my plans. Can I get an amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen. But no matter what is happening, my belief in God is this, that his plan is perfect. That's why the genealogy matters. Listen to me. It means that he was faithful to every generation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Whether they could see it, whether they could experience it, whether they could feel it. He was faithful. He was moving. He was moving. He was moving in Tamar's life, when she was lied to and abandoned.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She was moo He was moving in Ruth's life, when she had no man. He was moving in Rahab's life when she was a prostitute in a city that was about to be destroyed by God. He was moving. He was moving in a young girl's heart, who the Holy Spirit visited and said, you're going to give birth and you're gonna call His name Jesus. God is moving.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jeremiah 2911, for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. God is moving right now in your life for your future whether you feel it or not or whether you've experienced it or not. God is moving. We gotta trust that as disciples.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Last point, becoming the disciple Jesus has called me to be is focused on building God's kingdom and not my own. And not my own. Matthew 112. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel. You're like, well, who is that guy?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Zerubbabel came back from Babylon and he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Listen to me, the church in America is broken. We need a Zerubbabel. We need somebody that comes and looks over the broken ruins. That doesn't judge it, that doesn't mock it, that doesn't make fun of it, that doesn't roast it on social media but says, hey, let's rebuild the walls.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's build a church. So many Christians are fleeing California, let's stay in California, let's rebuild the church. Yeah. Let's rebuild the church and invite God to do something special. And the way we rebuild the church is we start building our lives on Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We start building our lives on the word of God, and we trust that no matter what's happening around us, we believe that God's doing something inside of us. At Sandals Church, we're not we're not building walls, listen to me, we're building lives. We're building families. We're building a future that cannot be stolen. So here's my invitation to you right now, are you ready to join what God is building?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Today is the day. Today is the day to choose to follow God. Today is the day to choose to become a disciple of Christ. Listen, today is your moment when you say, you know what God, I'm not gonna live for me anymore, I'm gonna make a decision to follow God. I'm gonna go get God's word, and I'm gonna get And I'm gonna stay in church, and I'm gonna study, and whether I feel like it or not, I'm gonna go to church this year, and whether my my year is blessed or my year sucks, I'm gonna follow you Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna follow You. And listen to me. I have no idea what God will do for you if you truly make that decision, but I know what He did in my life. And He took a dark and depraved day, and He has blessed me beyond anything that I could have ever imagined for myself. But if you're ready to follow Jesus, if you're ready to make these three commitments, I wanna encourage you to stand in just a minute as we pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Number 1, you're ready to say Jesus, I am ready to follow. I'm ready to follow. Are you ready? Jesus, I'm ready to learn. Every disciple, Fredo talked about this last week, last week.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Every disciple is a learner. You're like, Learning is hard. I know. I know. Because you know what happens when you try to learn, you feel dumb.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But you know how you you become not dumb? You learn, you study. And next, listen to me. Jesus, I'm ready to change. This book will not help you if you wanna stay the same.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But if you're ready to do those three things, I wanna encourage you. Would you just stand right now? In this room, you stand at your campus, would you stand right now? And you say, Lord Jesus, I'm making a decision today to become a disciple, to follow you, to learn from you. Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you meant it, like I meant it the day I bought this, your life will never be the same. And I'm telling you, God will blow your mind with what he does in your life this year. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray in the name of Jesus, that you would help us like these names that we read. These generations of faithful people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord, let us be the people in our generation that are faithful. Let us be the people in our generation that that change our story, that change our family, that change our direction, that change our lives. Let us be rooted in your word today and this year. Bless us father. We pray this in the name of Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we invite your holy spirit to just come over us and inspire us and change us and transform us this year into disciples. We pray this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Thank you guys so much for joining Sandals Church online today. And I believe pastor Matt was speaking to many of you who maybe are watching our content, online by yourself, but yet have not experienced what it's like to be in community even online. And we have something coming just for you. We'd love for you to sign up at sandalschurch.com/biblestudy. We're gonna have a short term group that's designed for people just like you who are watching online, but need to experience community so that we can follow Jesus together.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So sign up today. I'd love to connect with you. Grace and peace.
Morgan Teruel:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a 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.