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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
Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is McKay, and I'm a part of the online team here at Sandals Church. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Matt, teaching from our series, the gospel of Matthew. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. Now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You ever wonder why people go to church? Have you ever thought about that? I mean, you're gathered here today and I would imagine there's all kinds of reasons. And so some of you are watching from one of our campuses, some of you are watching online, some of you found this on YouTube and you're not even exactly sure why you're watching this message. But people come to church for all kinds of reasons.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Many of us that grew up Christian, we come out of a sense of duty. Right? This is what we're supposed to do. This is the way that we honor God. This is the way that we connect with God and we can't imagine our lives not being you know involved in church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of us have come here today because we're hurting. We've gone through something, maybe it's our marriage, our finances, our health and and we're longing and and we're reaching out for God. Some of us just have questions about life. There's so many young people the last couple of years that have made their way back into the church as they found our universities and colleges empty and bereft of morality and meaning. So I don't know why you're here today but most of us are here to hear from God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so I just wanna begin with a challenge. This is a this is a tough message today and I don't pick these messages. God does. We're going through the book of Matthew. This is this is what he picked for us to talk about today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I wanna encourage you, in a day and age when the second we don't like something we tune out, we cut it off, we shut it off, we we walk out. I wanna encourage you, I wanna challenge you to try to make it to the end of the sermon. You may not agree with everything that I say, you may not like everything that I say, you may decide at the end of the sermon, yep, that guy's not for me, but would you just listen? So much of the challenges we face as a country is we listen in sound bites. We listen in snippets and one side or the other twists and contorts those words, that sentence, that phrase to mean what we're afraid they were saying and oftentimes we miss the heart behind what they're trying to say.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I wish that was just politics but that's the church now. Little snippets of what I say on the debrief, the podcast that Tammy and I do. Snippets from my message or my sermon And people are responding and reacting and making all kinds of judgments over a sentence or even a portion of a sentence. So what I wanna talk to you today is what Jesus wants to talk to us about. And I want you to listen to this, about managing my emotions when I experience evil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because I'm I'm gonna guess you don't handle it so well. I mean, how many of guys would say we we don't handle this well as Americans? K. We we don't we don't we don't do well. And here's the thing is, we can all recognize evil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We've all experienced evil, but it's another thing to manage evil. And here's what Jesus is gonna teach us. You can't get rid of it. It's here to stay until he comes back and he gets rid of it forever. So here's his story.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 13 verse 24. I love seeing God's people open God's word and let's take a look at what Jesus says. So Jesus says, here's another story. So pastor Claude talked to us last week that Jesus likes to talk in parables. Parables are just another word for story, but they're they're made up stories to prove a real truth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's what Jesus says. Here's another story Jesus told. The kingdom of heaven, so that's the church, that's God, that's everything Jesus is about. He his favorite phrase is the kingdom of heaven. He says the kingdom of heaven is like a farmer, and I know I just lost half of you because you don't even know where vegetables come from.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who went to Sprouts. No, that's not what it says. The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field, right? That's what we're all trying to do. If you're raising kids, you're trying to plant good seeds.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're building your marriage, you're you're trying to plant good seeds. If you're coming to church, you're planting good seeds. You're trying to make your life better. But listen to what Jesus says, but that night as the workers slept. Now I want you to see this, they're not sinning, they're sleeping.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They've worked all day, they're tired. Sometimes evil is not your fault, but it's still thrust upon you. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. And the farmers workers went to him and said, sir, sir, the field where you planted Isn't that funny where you planted?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They planted but they're like, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds. Where did they come from? Now, let's be honest. In the story if you're the worker, you're kind of afraid the farmer's gonna think as a knucklehead you planted the wrong seeds. So they're they're a little worried who whose fault is it?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And that's that's what we love to do when there's evil. Who is responsible? Not us you. Where did they come from? Listen to Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:An enemy has done this. The farmer exclaimed. And then they say, should we pull the weeds out? They asked. And he says, no, no.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to this, no. If you uproot the wheat, excuse me, he said, if you do, you'll uproot the wheat. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then the harvesters will sort out the weeds and then tie them into bundles and burn them and put the wheat into the barn. You're like, well pastor, I thought we were talking about evil not farming, you know, and some of you are hungry for farmer boys, hang on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:See, some of you at first, this isn't about evil at all. Oh, but Jesus translates it for us. How many of you guys have ever read something Jesus says and you're little confused? Raise your hands. Anybody?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. That means you're a disciple. Okay. Check this out. I love this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If we bump down to Matthew thirteen thirty six, then leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. And I love his disciples. They're like, we don't understand you at all. His disciples said, please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field. Jesus replied, okay, there's a translation here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's not just talking about farmers. He's not just talking about wheat. He's not just talking about weeds. He's talking about life and evil. Jesus says this, the Son of Man, that's his favorite title for himself.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world and the good seed represents the good people of the kingdom. Now listen to this. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. And the enemy who planted the weeds amongst the wheat is the devil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's the devil. The harvest is the end of the world and the harvesters are the angels. Here's what Jesus is saying, you can plant good seed all you want and evil can afflict you. You can raise your kids in the way that they should go according to Proverbs, right? And it says, and in the end, they will not forget how you've raised them and they did.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You can love your husband, be faithful to your husband and still experience infidelity. You can be faithful and tithe and still get fired and lose your job. You see evil doesn't always care that you're planting good seeds. Sometimes it just comes your way and plants in your yard even when it wasn't invited. Here's the truth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:None of us told that 22 year old man to put bullets in his gun and climb to the top of a roof at a college campus in Utah and pull that trigger, but he did and it affected all of our lives. To the left and to the right, people have been losing their minds, pointing fingers, blaming everyone and Jesus wants to teach us, hey, when when evil shows up in your life, you need to be ready and you need to handle it well. So when I experience evil, managing my emotions means, look at this, I don't trust my immediate reaction, I trust Jesus. This week my wife had some thoughtful things to say to me in terms of how I could improve as a human being. Like we I thought we were on a walk.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what I'm saying? I thought we were connecting emotionally. But it was a therapy session that I did not realize had begun. And so she shared some things with me that she was not happy about and I didn't handle it well. I didn't handle it well and I reacted.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing, completely missed what she was trying to say. Let me just tell you something. My immediate reaction is rarely right. And your immediate reaction is really right. And so here's what happened.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I took a step back. I thought about it. I prayed about it. I said, what is going on in my life? Well, here's what's going on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I feel like lately she's been a little critical and I know no husband can relate. It's just me. But when I settled down, I came back to her and said, hey, can we talk about how I reacted? I said, here's how I'm feeling. I said, I feel like as my wife, I need a little more cheerleader and a little less ref.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen, guys. You know what I'm saying? Because all refs do is throw flags. They throw flags. I need pom poms.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He can do it. Yes, he can. He can do it. He's my man. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so here's the thing. Here's why my reaction was way out of proportion to what she was saying. It's because I had been feeling things already. And I realized that and I realized I was wrong. And I was able to express how I felt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here's the thing. Here's why we just lose our minds because there's all this evil in the world. There's all this injustice. There's all this stuff going on. And the second we get an opportunity to
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:let somebody know how we feel, we do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I want you to listen to me. Outbursts have lasting consequences. Matthew thirteen twenty eight, I want you to underline this in your Bibles. Should we pull out the weeds? Listen to me Christians, I love you but we are on team dumb.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's what Satan wants us to do. Should we pull out the weeds, right? We gotta make it right. We gotta bring justice here. We gotta march.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We gotta make this right. Jesus says, no. What? Wait, what? What?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We shouldn't get rid of evil? No, he replied. Why? If you do that, you'll uproot the wheat. Let both grow together until the harvest.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I just tell you something? It's hard to know who's on God's side. It's hard to know. Now here's the thing. Some of you guys think you know because you're a prophet from God and you have truth over everything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You got it all figured out. If you think you've got it all figured out, listen to me, I love you, you have nothing figured out. So managing my emotions, what does it mean? Look at this, write this down. I can feel my feelings, but I must follow my faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I can feel my feelings. I'm not trying to invalidate your feelings. I'm not trying to turn you into a robot. I'm just saying, listen to me young people, not every thought needs to be shared on social media. What are you doing?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Nobody cares. Your own mom is looking at your feet going really again again. Stop vomiting on the internet. Stop. Feel your feelings but follow your faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What does Jesus say? Chill out. Chill out. Immediate reactions are rarely the right reactions. So what can happen to my emotions when I encounter evil?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. Look at this one, shock. Man, I was shocked. But here's the problem, if you're not careful, shock can move to disbelief. Oh, man, if there was a God, he wouldn't let this happen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If God was good, he would never allow evil. It's amazing how something healthy like shock, we should all be shocked when a loved one dies, when someone famous dies, when someone's shot or murdered or killed or a plane crashes. Shock's appropriate, but if you're not careful it can move to disbelief. Look at this next one. Anger.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. I'm not angry. Well, look at your face. Anger can lure can can move to outbursts. You can lose it on your kids.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You can lose it on your spouse. You can lose on your marriage. You can lose it on a police officer when they're just doing your job. You know you were going 75 and a 25. You know, in a school zone with your sandal sticker on the back of your car.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How about this next one, sadness, right? It's it's good to be sad. Okay. I I was so sad this week. I couldn't even watch the funeral on Sunday.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This last Sunday for Charlie Kirk. I couldn't even watch it. Still processing. The fact that in our country, we solve disagreements with bullets. Now that's not new to America.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We've often solved disagreements with bullets. A bullet took the life of Lincoln, a bullet took the life of Kennedy, a bullet took the life of Doctor. Martin Luther King. Here's what's different. When Kennedy and Lincoln and King were killed, America responded in grief together.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're not there anymore. We're not there anymore. Listen to me. America's not gonna get it right until the church gets it right. If we can't control our emotions, how are they gonna control their emotions?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We have faith, they don't have faith. They have feelings but they don't have faith. Look at this next one, confusion. Confusion, right? And it's okay to be confused, I'm confused.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't understand this. It is harder now than ever to know what the truth is about anything. Somebody asked me in church in the lobby, did we really land on the moon? Can I tell you in seminary, we never talked about moon landings? We don't open our bibles to first chapter lunar.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know. Now some of you are gonna email me because you know, you know. Okay. I don't want an email from you unless your last name is George Jetson. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All people know who that is. But what happened? Confusion. Let's look at this. Some of don't know what this word means.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's go back confusion, can move to dissolution. Now, that's a big word. It's a big word and I know many of you went to public school, my apologies. It's okay. It's a me too, me too.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Me too, it's okay, relax everybody, just relax. Here's the thing, dissolution is it comes from the word dissolve. And so you can go from being confused to just dissolving your faith, dissolving relationships, you can become a nihilist and just say nothing matters. It's all ridiculous, tear down every structure. Some of you though, you're just numb.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? But numbness can lead to detachment. Do you know how many people I meet that don't go to sandals anymore and they don't know why? Yeah, I don't know what happened. You're detached.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You went numb. So some of you, you used to remember what it felt like to feel God's presence. You remember that. But here's the thing, haven't felt it in a while so it's God's fault, it's the church's fault, it's my fault. Or something's happened in your life that you haven't dealt with and you've gone numb and now you're detached.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know who's responsible for your faith? You. Nobody else. But what do we do? We go to the Internet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's what Jesus would do. Proverbs is a great passage. There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking. Some of you need to get that tattooed on your forehead. Jesus is saying, listen, here here here's the core principle, don't rush.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't rush. Now I'm gonna talk about something that you you've probably never heard anybody in your life talk about and this drives me crazy. We are all aware of what the devil did. We're always aware when evil happened. Do you know what we never think about as Christians?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We never think about what is the devil's second move. So when I manage my emotions, I want you to write this down. I gotta anticipate the devil's second move. Okay. So parents, your kids lied.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They weren't at a friend's house. They were somewhere else. They smoked weed. Right? That's evil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's wrong. That's what the devil's doing. Okay. But what's his second move? He's already done the first move.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's already sifted your child. What's the second move? It's always this to separate you further from the child. So listen to me parents, listen to me. There's what your idiot kid did and now there's what you're gonna do as an idiot.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You see oftentimes it's our reaction that the devil's after. That's the thing. Matthew thirteen thirty nine, look at this. The enemy who planted The reason I I underline that is I want you to see it's past tense. It already happened.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So it's not We cannot change what the devil did. We cannot wind the clock back and fix what already occurred. What we have to do now is say, what on earth does the devil want me to do now that'll make this worse? So my wife and I are walking, it's a therapy session that I'm unaware of and she shares her thoughts. And I say, well, since we're sharing thoughts,
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:let me give you some of my wisdom.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:See that's the devil's second move. I want you to think about this for the rest of your life. What on earth is the devil trying to do in your life? Okay. You were abused, you were molested, I am so sorry, that's evil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's evil. But what is the devil trying to do now? That happened. What's happening? What's happening?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What is he working in your life? You got hurt in a church. Okay, that happened. Does that give you permission to never go to church? You're gonna stand before Jesus on judgment day?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Church people hurt me. You know what he's gonna say? Me too. Me too. They crucified me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What'd they do to you? Oh, they sent you a Facebook post, my gosh. You are man, you're up there with Paul and Peter. They didn't respond to your needs? Good lord.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You needed money for a gas bill and they didn't pay it? My goodness Jesus, look at this suffering saint. Okay. You see the devil's second move is always the big one. We always respond to the first move and we fail to see that his intent was never to plant seed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me, if you're not on Jesus' side, you're on the devil side and here's what I want you to see about Satan, he didn't give a rip about you. He didn't care if you're ripped out, pulled out, he doesn't care that you're headed for fire, he doesn't care that you're headed for for eternal suffering, he doesn't care. You wanna know what he cares about? Hurting the church. That's all he cares about.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Second Corinthians chapter two verse 10, if you think sandals is whack, please open your bibles to Corinthians. You will write me a letter this week and say you have led us so well. Okay, The Corinthians were a mess and there's a dude that's married to like his stepmom. Yeah. It's crazy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And the Apostle Paul is like kick that man out of the church. So they finally do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. Didn't think I didn't think that was that bad.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But then listen to me, then the dude repents and he wants to get right and he comes back. Look at what he says. When you forgive this man, I forgive him too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ's authority for your benefit. Never forget this verse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that Satan will not outsmart us for we are familiar with his evil schemes. Listen to me church, we've been playing checkers for far too long and the devil is playing chess and he owns us every time. He owns us every single time. So here's here's what I want you to do this week. I want you to identify the devil's endgame.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What is the devil's endgame? Okay. So your husband looked at porn. That's terrible. That's awful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We have amazing marriage ministries, counselors that will come alongside you. Okay. There's what he did ladies and now there's what you're gonna do. Is this the end of your marriage? Do you hate all men?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Are all men evil? Like I Satan just is like, you just come on, come on. Talk to me about it. Talk to me about it. One time a woman in our church told me all men are evil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, well, I'm man. She said, no, you're not. You're a pastor. That's hurtful. So managing my emotions means I identify the devil's endgame.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So let me ask you this. What is the devil really attacking? How do you figure it out? You ask questions. Who is the devil accusing?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Who is the devil accusing? Man, here's what broke my heart this week. I watched pastors I know and I love, go to social media and accuse churches who did not talk about Charlie Kirk and they challenged Christians to leave those churches. Now now listen, I talked about it. I I talked about it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I felt led by the Holy Spirit to talk about it. I gotta be honest, I don't know if it was the right thing or wrong thing. I just I just do the best job I can. But let me tell you something. That's the devil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're gonna stay at Sandals Church until I say something that you don't like or until one week I don't address your favorite issue or your pet issue or your pet project, I cannot pastor you. And so here's what the devil's trying to do. He's accusing pastors and churches because he hates the kingdom. He hates the kingdom. And some some poor guy at a college campus gets shot in front of his family, and so what do we do as Christians?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We shoot each other. Oh, that makes sense. That makes total sense. And let me say this, if you're here this week at Sandals Church because your pastor didn't talk about Charlie Kirk, I challenge you to pray about whether the Holy Spirit led you here or the devil did. And here's why I don't care if you go to Sandals, it's not my kingdom.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And not every pastor is in it for his kingdom. Some of them are trying to build their own. And they love it when churches lose Christians and they come to their church and their offerings go up. I don't care about your offering, care about your soul. Are you listening to God?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Are you listening? So look at the next question. Who is the devil trying to divide? Us. Us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, in 2020, guys remember that? It was wild. It was wild. Some of you are still watching from a bunker. I love you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Come out, we're out here. But can I tell you something in 2020, for the first time in my life, I saw the church united? I'd never seen anything like this. And I was a part of it. It was beautiful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It was amazing. And then a white police officer, I don't know, killed a black man, I don't know. And then all of a sudden, me and my black friends had problems. In one moment, the church went from unified to as divided as we've ever been. What happened to George Floyd was wrong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What we didn't see coming is what's what's the end game? Do you think the devil was happy that churches were working together? I mean, I'm sitting in this room with a priest. I'm like, hey, didn't know you guys were here. A Catholic priest.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's like, you're
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:doing you're doing good. I saw you
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:on Fox News. He's giving me a thumbs up. And then, know, I mean, churches of all denominations coming together because we were declared not essential. Not essential. And people were turning to drugs, losing their sobriety, unraveling.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People were dying, not of COVID yet, but of all the sins that come with our culture. Culture and the church was united and then that happened which was wrong, which was terrible, and all of a sudden we're divided and the devil is high fiving his demons. We got him. We got him. You see here's the thing, the devil hates the church and he knows that weed pulling will wound the real wheat.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's what he knows. Here's what Satan wants out of your life. He wants you to listen to this message and go, that guy's too political, that guy's not for me, the church has gone rogue, I don't need it, I'm gone. You know what the devil is doing? He's celebrating you because you're just a piece of wheat that's been pulled from the field.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing, I'm not saying I'm right. I'm not saying I do it right all the I'm actually promising you at some point I will deeply offend you. Like it always amaze me when people leave mad. I'm like, told you. I told you this would happen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But here's the thing, you like it when I push on other people about their issues, but when it's your issue, like, oh, and you lose your mind and you go somewhere else. Managing my emotions means, listen to me, I extend grace to people who react differently than me. Some of you think you're hearing from the Holy Spirit, you're hearing from your algorithm. This last week I got to sit down with a young black woman, she's amazing, I care about her. I said help me understand.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Help me understand what you don't like about Charlie Kirk. I said I'm not interested in a debate. I want to know your perspective. She sent me some videos that have changed my algorithm. I was
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:like, I didn't know these people existed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't know these were perspectives. But I wanted to understand. I'm not black. I'm not a woman. I I I don't see things the way she does, but I'm her pastor.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm called to shepherd her, which means I have to care for her. Who do you need to extend grace to? You're like, well, I've run out of grace. Really? Did God run out of grace for you?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And there's all these pastors, these people condemning back and forth, and and and Satan is throwing a party. Romans fourteen four, the Apostle Paul says this, who are you to condemn someone else's servants? Can I tell you what I'm not responsible for? Other churches. You guys are enough to be responsible for.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like I'm good. I'm good. And a lot of these people that are huge on social media got little tiny churches. And what they want is influence, they don't actually wanna pastor. Kate, my job is you guys.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's my job. I'm by the way, we're not Catholic. We don't have a pope. Nobody's over us, you know, telling us what to do. We're trying to listen to the Holy Spirit and trust God and do his work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Who are you to condemn someone else's servants? Like, I don't know what's going on in some other church. I don't know what they were facing, what they're going through. I don't know. I wasn't in the preparation when that pastor decided or not decided what to preach on or what to talk about.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's not my responsibility. That's between that pastor and the Lord. Who are you to condemn someone else's servants? For their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. Now listen to Paul.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And with the Lord's help, they will stand and receive his approval. Here's what Paul says, instead of being critical of other leaders, man pray for them because they need it. Listen to me. If we continue down this path of criticizing pastors and preachers the way we do, we won't have any. We won't Why would why would you want this job?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like what I say right now lives on the internet forever. What you do is a rumor. Nobody knows. James three one two. And dear brothers and sisters, many of you should become teachers in the church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know why? It's a hard job. James says this, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, he says, we all make many mistakes. I went back and watched my sermon from the weekend of Charlie Kirk.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so here's what you need to know. Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday. I preached the message that went on the Internet on Thursday. I was in the middle of my sermon preparation when the text messages came through. And my daughter texted me, said, dad, is this real?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I went and looked at the video and I shouldn't have. I wish I wish I didn't see it, but I saw it. I went back and looked at my sermon that I preached to you guys. My eyes are darting all over the place. I've never seen myself look so afraid.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let me tell you what I was processing. I'm a person who stands in front of people and talks for a living and shares controversial views. It rattles me that a guy at a college campus where you're supposed to have controversial views get shot. That that bothered me. I'm gonna make mistakes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm not gonna be able to handle it perfectly. It's hard to be a pastor. We need to pray for our pastors and not criticize them. We we gotta stop doing that. Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There is a revival taking place in America and Satan hates it. More people have gone to church in the last two weeks since Easter. That's a good thing. So why don't we stop shooting each other? Why don't we stop picking on one another?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why don't we start praying for one another? And why don't we celebrate the fact that people are turning to God in numbers that we have not seen? Do you know that Bible sales are up amongst every translation? Like if you're looking for a job young people, sell these because people are buying them. Something is happening in the world.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Something. Managing my emotions means this, I look for an opportunity to care for people who are hurting. People are hurting. We gotta go back a couple of weeks to Matthew chapter 12. In verse 18, Jesus knows that the world is after him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They've decided, we gotta kill this guy, he's too awesome. And that's that's what the world does with people who make a stand. It's just what they do. And Jesus heals them all and he says, tell no one what I've done, which of course, what do think they did? They told everyone, you know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then Matthew says this, all of this happened so that the word of the prophet Isaiah might come true. And this is what was quoted about Jesus centuries before. Look at my servant whom I have chosen, he is my beloved who pleases me. If listen to me, if you don't know who God is, at Jesus, that's him. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And listen to this, how did he do that? He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. Woah, what? How you gonna protest if you don't do that? Listen, why is that his approach?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. So here's the thing that bothered me the most about my sermon, the weekend of Charlie Kirk's death. I was preaching and I get fired up, know, it happens, right? It happens. I get overly excited.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My wife is always like, don't shout so much. I'm like, I'm not shouting. But in the in the middle of my sermon, man, I saw two black ladies get up and walk out. And some of you guys will be like, oh, well, whatever. They don't want the truth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. No. No. No. That broke my heart.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What that means is the way I was saying something was hurting them and not helping them. So I gotta check my spirit. I gotta check my spirit. Let me tell you, for those of you who love Charlie Kirk. Let me tell you when Charlie Kirk was at his best.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When he talked to real people face to face. He was he was great. You wanna know when he was at his worst? When he was on a microphone preaching to the choir. We're all that way.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We all do that. Managing my emotions means, this is so important, I reaffirm my trust in God's eternal plan. Can I just tell you? I I you know, a lot of my friends on the on the right, they say, well, they they killed Charlie, but they launched a movement. Let let me just can I just be real with you for a moment?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We lost a great leader. I don't know where that person is coming from. Now, for those of you who don't like him, listen to me, he was 31. Go back and
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:listen to me. Go back and listen to
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:me at thirty one. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You guys would go to a different church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My daughter my daughter and her small group, they're watching an old series. And I was like, oh my gosh, I love that series. I went back and watched it. I just had to like, I just took my computer and I said, Lord, forgive me. It was so harsh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I was like, you know, I'm asking the Holy Spirit to help me and the Holy Spirit's like it's already recorded. You can't we can't go back. You can't go back. Here's the thing. I think Charlie could have been more tender.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I think he could have become more compassionate. He's 31. He would have got better. He got better. You know, and here's the thing is, he could have been wrong about some things.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He may have been wrong about some things. But what the devil's doing is labeling him a racist, that hurts the kingdom because he he talked about his faith. So what goes on in the heart of a person? Can I just tell you we don't know? We don't know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I hear all the time people talk about a celebrity or a politician and they'll say, oh, hate him. You don't know him. You like, you don't know them. You know sound bites. You know things that are twisted and distorted.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And and what I would say is if you think Charlie Kirk's a racist, he could have just been wrong. He could have just been ignorant. I've been both, And there will be soon. Okay? It happens.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It happens. But here's the thing, man. Satan is doing everything he can to discredit the gospel. Everything he can to keep as many people as possible from becoming wheat. And here's what you could say.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, if you're not a fan of Charlie Kirk, you could say, you know what, there's a lot of things that I didn't like that he said. I do like that he was bold about his faith, even if I don't agree with how he lived it out. I don't agree with how many of you live out your faith. I mean, let's just let's just talk about your giving. Let's just let's start there.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? Is that too offensive? Now you're like, now I'm really out. Holy Spirit is leading me somewhere else. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What what I'm trying to say is, you know, I don't wanna make this any more about anything political. And there was just a terrible shooting again this week of another young man confused, shooting at an ice facility. Listen, our young people are hurting and listen to me, especially our young men. They're not they're not handling this well. Turns out living in a basement playing video games in dark doesn't produce well balanced young men.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what we need to do church is show them that there's a real adventure and it's following Jesus. Amen? Amen. Alright. So hang on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hopefully, you haven't already shut off if you're watching online. Let's let's close. Matthew thirteen forty. So this is Jesus. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we have to reaffirm today. Hey, God has a plan. I I'm not happy that Charlie Kirk died. I'm still grieving. I'm still processing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm not happy about, you know, the ice shooting. And can I just say for the record, I'm not happy about anybody getting shot for any reason anywhere? That doesn't give me pleasure. It grieves my heart that human beings are sinful and we continue to violate one of the great 10 commandments, thou shall not kill. And we continue to do that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matthew thirteen forty, Jesus says this, just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. Now, some of you guys don't believe in God yet. You don't believe that Jesus Christ is returning and you don't believe in judgment. Let me tell you something, you will someday. Because all of that is happening.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And the Son of Man will send his angels, listen to this, and they will remove from his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. Jesus is gonna deal with it. And nobody can run and nobody can hide. He's gonna deal with it. And the angels will throw them who?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Those who do sin and those who call evil, the angels will throw them into a fiery furnace where there will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth. There will be two things in hell. Listen to me, sorrow and anger. Sorrow and anger. But it doesn't matter how you experience hell, you're still there whether you're crying or ticked, that's where you are.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But listen to this, then the righteous will shine like the sun in their father's kingdom. Listen to these words. Anyone with ears and I hope that's you. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Listen to me very carefully.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is the most important part of the message. So many of you young people you say, well, if God is good, why on earth would he have created Satan? Listen to me. He did create Satan. Satan was beautiful and perfect and glorious.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he sat amongst God's most holiest cherubim, but Satan rejected God's plan. Satan rejected God's love. Satan went his own way and he has become a contorted version of himself where you cannot even see the light in him anymore. And listen to me, some of you are on that same path where you're rejecting God and you are going your own way. And here's the thing, one day you will look like one of two things, Satan or Jesus, you choose.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You choose. My prayer for you is that on the day of judgment, you radiate like the sun. Like the sun because you have made the choice not to follow your feelings, but to follow your faith and to follow Jesus. And here's the thing church, if we can do that, we can change ourselves, we can change our church, We can change our state. We can change our country.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We can change the world. Because the world now more than ever needs light. And he has called us to be that. Amen? Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's pray. Father, we pray in the name of Jesus, Lord, that you would help us and God forgive me for anything I've said that you did not want me to say. God, there's there's no way I can preach this message perfectly. It's it's impossible for me to divorce myself from what it is that you're trying to say. So I just ask for forgiveness upfront.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if I've offended anyone, I ask for forgiveness. But Lord, if if you have spoke through me at all, I pray that every person would listen and would change and would choose in this moment right here to radiate like the child of God you've called them to be. I pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Just wanna take a moment to say thank you for joining us. And yes, we are both in jean jackets today. But we pray that you would, with all of the grace of Jesus, navigate just the challenging world we live in, the challenging life with not just reactions, but with the grace of Jesus and mercy for those who are hurting. And I wanna encourage those of you who are watching online and are a part of our church, would you just pray about how you could support the work that God is doing in and through Sandals Church all around the world? To do that, you can go to sandalschurch.com/support.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: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.