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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
Hey, thanks so much for listening to Sandals Church. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We hope you enjoy this message. Hey guys, welcome to the Essentials Series. I want to start off with a question. How many of you guys in your entire life have ever made plans, you know what those are, and had them disrupted? Raise your hands. Okay. Everybody. Right. So at some point in time in your life, life is not going to go according to plan. Some of you are divorced. That was not in the plans, right? You meant until death do us part. And you're like, yeah, well, that's why I thought about killing him. Okay. That's another sermon series. But some of us, man, either death smacks us in the face, divorce smacks us in the face. Our job is no longer a job, right? That, you know, a robot took over or whatever else it is. But life just kind of has a way of constantly surprising us. And the essentials are really what kind of anchors us so we go, okay, what do I get back to doing? Because some of us are wrapped up in things that are important but not essential. Tammy and I, we went on a trip with sandals and it was amazing. We went to Turkey, Greece, and Rome and we followed the steps of the Apostle Paul. It was powerful. It was amazing. God was with us. We flew home We landed in Newark, New Jersey. You want to you want to be depressed after going to Europe land in Newark? Okay, and even people in New Jersey don't like Newark So I don't want to offend anybody but we landed in Newark, New Jersey And what we didn't know is there was a huge storm that hit the entire East Coast shut down all the airports in Boston in New York in New Jersey and in DC. And we walked into just chaos, absolute chaos. People were crying, they were putting out cots. Let me just tell you this, if you're in an airport and you see cots on the floor, get out, right? And so I was like, I'm a VIP member, we'll go talk to United. That line was a hundred people long and two ladies trying to help all of these angry people. And I just told Tammy, I said, we gotta get out of here. Let's get an Uber. And so we got out of there. I didn't even know where we were going. I just selected a hotel because everybody's trying to get a hotel. We had to go an hour away from Newark, New Jersey. We woke up the next morning in the jungle. Okay. I don't know whatever picture you have of New Jersey. It's wrong. Okay. New Jersey has some of the largest forests in the United States. And by the way, has the most bears of any state. And tell me why not right in the middle of wherever those bears are. Right. I asked the guy at the front desk, I said, Hey, can we get an Uber? And he started laughing. Like we're in the middle of nowhere. And so we had to rally. We had to come together and figure out, okay, what are we going to do? So our plans were disrupted. Life punched us in the face. Okay. And maybe this is not nearly like what you've been punched in the face with, but all of a sudden things are disrupted and you need the essentials to anchor you. What are we going to do? Because when emotions run high, intelligence runs low. And many of you, you make dumb decisions when life punches you in the face. The essentials ground us. Okay, who am I? Who is God and what does he call me to do? And so today we're going to talk about how the love of God changes me. You see, in our world, the Bible says God loves you just the way you are and you don't need to change. Here's what you need to know about God's love. God loves you too much to let you stay the same. Hey, thank you so much for joining us for service today. I want to take a quick second and invite you to give to the work that God is doing in and through Sandals Church, and you can do so by going to donate.sc. Let's get back into the message with Pastor Matt. So let's start off for those of you who, who missed last week's sermon, the two essentials, the great commandment and the great commission. And I want to challenge you guys to memorize these verses, because when life punches you in the face, you can't be like, what was that verse? You need to know it. You need to know it. Teacher, a man said, what's the most important commandment in the entire Bible? And Jesus replied, you must love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, with all This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is equally important. It's equally important, right? We talk a lot about equality in our world. Jesus says this one is just as important as the first one. Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all of the prophets are based upon these two commands. Love God and love people. Love people. If you just love God, you're going to end up sinning against people. And if you just love people, you're going to end up sinning against God. And these are why churches go nuts and Christians get weird. And next, the great commission, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, Jesus Jesus came and he told his disciples, he said, I have been given all authority. If you're a Christian, you have to ask yourself who has all authority, you or Jesus. If it's you, then you're not a follower of Jesus. He says, I have all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of the nations. People who don't look like you, people who don't believe like you, people who don't think like you. Like, if you're a Democrat, you might have to get a Republican saved And if you're a Republican you might need to lead a Democrat to Jesus Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit And I just lost all of you because I don't know pastor And it says teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you you see the reason most of you don't teach People to follow the commands of Jesus is because you don't follow the commands of Jesus. Love God, love people, live on mission. We got all these young people looking to change the world when Jesus, 2,000 years ago, told us how to change the world. Love God, love people, live on mission. You see, number one, the love of God changes me. It changes me. I'm gonna share a story with you where a woman is dynamically changed. The world doesn't want her to change. Christians or religious people don't believe she can change, but the love of God changes her. This story occurs in all four gospels. Jesus says this woman will be talked about until the end of the age. Think about that. This is an important story. One of the Pharisees, he asked Jesus to eat with him. This is a hyper, super religious person. So if you're Catholic, think about the Pope. Okay. Like if, if you're a, you know, a Christian, think about your pastor, this guy, this guy is doing it, right. And so Jesus goes over to his house and he reclined at the table. Don't you love Jesus knows how to chill. Some of you need to be like Jesus and chill. Amen. And behold, an uninvited guest shows up a woman of the city who was a center. Now this is code 2000 years ago for prostitute for sex worker. She is identified as the worst of the worst because of what she does for a living. Listen to this. When she learned that he was reclining at the table of this guy's house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment. So many people read this story, and you wonder how she knew who this guy was and what the house was like and what bedroom to go to. It's important for the story. And standing behind Jesus' feet, she doesn't even greet him. She can't face him. She began to wet his feet with her tears. And then she got on her knees and she wiped them with her hair. And she kissed his feet. This is important. And she anointed them with the ointment that she bought. Now, other Gospels tell us this was an entire year's worth of her earnings. She just took her whole yearly salary and poured it at the feet of Jesus. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited them saw this, he said to himself, isn't it amazing how everyone's always been brave on Twitter, like when nobody gets to actually know it's you? He didn't say this out loud, he tweeted it to himself. If this man were a prophet, he would have known who that woman is and what sort of woman she was that was touching him. My question is, how does he know what kind of woman she is? How does he know? For she, he thought, she's a sinner. Now here's the problem with your thoughts. Jesus can read them. You can fool me. You can fool your family. You cannot fool Jesus. And Jesus knew what was going on inside this guy's head. And he said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. You always got to get a little nervous when Jesus has a story to tell him. Like story time with Jesus is like, ah, right. And Simon in his own arrogance says, tell me, teacher, teach me something today. And Jesus said a certain money lender had two debtors. You ever had somebody that owes you money? You ever had somebody, you loan money to family, that was on you, right? You have an old friend you loaned money to, now you're not friends, right? We all understand how this goes. He said there was a guy who had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which one of them will love him more? And Simon said, well, I suppose the one who canceled the larger debt. And Jesus said to him, you've judged rightly. And turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? Do you see her? You see, all Simon could do is judge her. I follow this guy on TikTok and all he does is he goes around and interviews women on the street and it breaks my heart. And he was interviewing this young woman I asked him yesterday did you see this I can't even get to the interview. He asked her how long you've been on the streets and he says what do you do to earn money and at first you know it's what you would think. I beg, I ask, I steal. And in her emaciated body, full of dirt, she starts to weep. And she says, sometimes I have sex with people so I can eat. And I just, I just start crying. Man, instead of judging people who have to do things to eat, what if you just started loving them? And I showed it to Tammy, she's like, I don't want to see it, she's crying too. Jesus said, I entered your house, He said, you gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. He said, you gave me no kiss. You see culturally 2000 years ago, it was culturally appropriate to kiss a man on the cheek. One of my relatives is Italian. I'm trying to get used to that. It's still a little weird. You know, I'm like, you know, because you don't want to miss and hit it dead on. So I'm pretty good at one kiss, but I don't get that right because there's a follow-up. You got to do both sides. He said, you gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil. It was customary when a guest would come over to your house, you would take your finest oil and you would pour it on the top of their heads. Yet she has anointed my feet with ointment. He says, therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Why? For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. And then he turned to the woman, and he said to her, your sins are forgiven. And everybody praised God, right? Revival broke out. Oh my gosh, we love Jesus. Isn't Jesus great? No, these are church people. Then those at the table with him began to say amongst themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, he faith has saved you. Go in peace. You see the love of God, the love of God, man, inspires me to change. Isn't that amazing? You see, this woman thought, if I can ever change, this is my moment. This is my moment. Because whenever you encounter Jesus, you want to be better. You want to be better. Listen to me, if you're sitting in church today and the Spirit of God is here and the Spirit of God is moving through what I'm saying, as a husband, you want to be a better husband. As a kid, you want to be a better kid. You want to be a better wife. You want to be a better friend. Jesus motivates us to want to be better. better and even the worst of us go oh my gosh if it's ever possible it's possible through him it's possible through him you see the love of God enables me to change anybody ever tried to lose weight man I try to give up sugar this year my wife tempts me all the time all the time she wanted to go ice cream. She was like, come on, just do it. Just do it. She literally, I love her. She just wants like you don't laugh. You try to give up sugar and tell me that stuff ain't crack. The first week I tried to give out, wake up every morning, not praising Jesus. I was like licorice. You see, here's what sin says, you're fat, you'll never lose weight. Here's what Jesus says, I love you. I love you. And you can change. Here's what sin says, you're never going to defeat your sexual desires. Here's what the love of God says, I'm going to show you something you want more. You want more. Some of you, I prayed with a guy this week, and this guy's like, this guy looks like a real man. Like, I just wish, I just wish once, you know, I could look like that for Tammy. You know, like, just, you know, just do that and button just shoot you right in the face. And just with tears, you know what he said? He said, I can't control my temper. He said, I'm tired of being angry. You know who can't control your temper? You. You know who can? The love of Jesus. The love of Jesus can change you. Some of you are just wrought with anxiety and fear. I mean, like you were doing good and then the aliens thing, and you're like, yeah, I'm done. I'm just, I'm done. I mean, I just, I just feel for those of us who wrestle with this because our culture feeds our demon. Tonight at 11, 10 new things that you didn't know could kill you, right? And they're just constantly, constantly messing with us. I want you to read back through this story. If you're a person that struggles with anxiety, and I want you to underline over and over and over again, how Jesus told her to leave. He said, go in peace, go in peace. And let me say this. There was nothing peaceful about that dinner. Was it? They weren't even nice to Jesus. They weren't, they didn't even welcome Jesus. They didn't kiss him. They didn't know on his head. They were there to trap him. Changing his heart. And I got news for you. If you're old, it gets worse. Do you know what doctors that study our brains have now determined when you're 35 years or older. By the way, that's midlife. Quit saying it's 40 or 50. You ain't living to 100. I'm in midlife. I'm like, you're almost dead. By the time you're 35 years old, listen to me. Your brain is on 95% autopilot. The other day I was driving, Tammy called me, she said, hey, you just drove right past our house. I was 10 minutes past our house. I just, I don't know, I don't know what I was doing, but I should have been driving. Right? You ever on your day off, drive right to work, you're like, what am I doing? Why am I here? I'm not getting paid. What happened? So listen to me, changing by yourself, science says has a 5% success rate. And if you're not careful, you will become your parents. So here's your choice. You can become like your parents on earth or you can become like your father who's in heaven. I vote for your father in heaven. If you're under 35, there's still time. Don't screw up your life. Well, I'm just going to follow all my dumb friends. Okay, you know how we turned into this? You know how this happened? We followed our friends. Follow Jesus. The love of God enables me to change. That's what's missing from our world. Some of you, you don't realize that the greatest miracle on earth is a changed life. I was having breakfast with a guy I met at a Hunter Park campus and he asked me, he said, what inspires you to do what you do? And I said, I love to see people like you who've been changed by Jesus. It makes everything else worth it. Because truly watching a married couple stop fighting and change, it's an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing. Think about it if you got cancer and they said you have a 95% chance of not living. That's not good. You have a 95% chance of staying the same. But here's the good news with Jesus that percentage goes out the window With Jesus a sex worker can become a saint Like that like that Man if you're discouraged, which I feel like is my personal spiritual gift. I'm captain discouragement. I Want I just want to share this verse with you. When we, when we did, when we did that trip from Turkey, Greece, and Rome, I got to tell you I was tired. I was on planes. I was on a ship. I was on a bus. Do you know the Apostle Paul walked everywhere we went? I just was like, man, I wouldn't have made it as a Christian 2,000 years ago. You know, he walked everywhere. He got beat up everywhere he went by believers. Can you imagine you go to church and we just pound you? Here, I'm going to go back again next week and see if I can change some minds. Here's what he says. He faced a lot of discouragement. He says this, I am certain that the God who began the good work within you will continue His work, whose work? His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Man. Man. The love of God inspires us to want to change and it enables us to change. But here's what you need to know, and this is so important. This is the essential. The love of God always points me to Jesus. Always. And as Christians, we need to stop apologizing for that. Man, if you're in a discussion with somebody who's another religion, don't argue with them. Point them to Jesus. Look, I don't care who they follow, who they believe in, they ain't Jesus. No one is like Jesus. No one. And your friends, your family, your neighbor, they're missing out on Jesus. Jesus and this is why the Bible points us to the essential nature of Jesus as Christians if we lose this we've lost everything 1st John 4 9 and 10 you want to know about God's love God showed us how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world that we might have eternal life through him. Underline this and never forget it. This is real love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. You want to know what's wrong with the world? The world I C E sacrifice. Some of you as married couples, you're fighting about sex. Why don't you find about sacrifice who's sacrificing more? Well, why don't you both have a competition to see who can die first? Then you both win. You know, like I'm going to let her die first, pastor. You see the world, the world loves to talk about love March for love right yell at you in the name of love Jesus showed us what love actually is Let me ask you what do you think motivated that prostitute to wash the feet of Jesus the fact that he was judgmental Or the fact that she was so overwhelmed by his love She thought there was a chance for her at his feet Our job is to show the world that Jesus and That Jesus. Number four, Jesus will always point me to baptism. Always. This is so important. I meet so many Christians who tell me they're following Jesus and they've never followed him in obedience through baptism. Jesus, when he started his ministry, here's one of the things that many of you have missed. When Jesus begins his spiritual journey to save you, it starts with baptism. That's what he does before he does anything. He gets baptized. And if there was ever a guy who didn't need to be dunked, amen, it was him. But Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. He just didn't stumble upon it. He wasn't just like, I feel like a walk. It's really hot. I want to get wet. John the Baptist, Jesus says, is the most amazing man who ever lived. John tried to talk. Can you imagine if Jesus said, will you baptize me? That would be the most awkward thing ever. John tried to talk him out of it. He said, I'm the one who needs to be baptized by you. He said, why are you coming to me? But Jesus said, listen, this, it should be done. It should be done. Why? For we must carry out all that God requires. What is Jesus saying? He's saying baptism is essential. Now is baptism essential to be saved? No, but it is essential to be a follower of Jesus. So what did John do? He agreed, you can't argue with Jesus. Try! So John, he agreed. Some things, listen to me, some things as a Christian, they just don't make sense. Here's what I've learned in my infinite wisdom. I'm dumb. I just do what Jesus says. I just do what Jesus says. Amen. I was talking to a guy in our church this week and I was asking him, I said, how's business going? This is what he said. He said, I don't know how to say this pastor. He said, but I just feel like whenever I try to do what God tells me to do, he blesses me. Shocking, shocking. You know, that's what he told me. He just, he said, I just try to follow God and God just keeps growing my business. So John agreed to baptize him. Can you imagine man? Like I'd be so nervous. I'm going to do this, right? I got to say the words, right? Do I baptize you in the name of you and you. Spirit help me out. Get me through this, right? It just would be so weird. But John did it. So he agreed after his baptism. As Jesus came up out of the water, remember the word baptized means to dip under. OK, why is the word baptized in our Bibles, because when they were translating this 500 years ago, they realized we weren't dipping people underwater. We were sprinkling them. They just left the word so they didn't look disobedient. That's our history. We're not doing it right. So just leave the word. So nobody knows what it means. And when Jesus came up out of the water, listen, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. Listen to me. The Spirit of God does not bless people who are disobedient to God. I don't know where you are. I don't know what's happened in your life. I don't know what's happened in the past. I don't know if you've been a wreck like this woman. Here's what I want you to know. We cannot change the past, but we can change your future. And here's how you change your future. You just do what God says. And baptism is an essential. It's an essential. There's a reason I'm a Baptist. Because Baptists were willing to die for our understanding of baptism. And why is that? It's an essential. Why is it an essential? Not because I said so, not because Baptist said so, but because Jesus said so. Let me just paraphrase. It should be done. It should be done. And Jesus went under, and Jesus came up, and the Holy Spirit fell upon him. And listen to these words. Listen to me, especially the men in this room who've never heard a word of an encouragement from your father. He came up out of the water and a voice from heaven said, Who's that? That's father. He said, This is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy. when his people are obedient. You want to know what makes Jesus different from any human being who ever lived? Every single time his entire life he chose obedience. What would happen in your life if instead of choosing disobedience you just said, you know what Lord, I'm gonna choose obedience. I don't understand everything about the Bible. I Don't understand everything about life But I understand this if I follow Jesus God you'll bless my life And he will Matthew 28 19 says this therefore go and make disciples of who all nations. How do we do that? We start with baptism. Baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now when I was first coming up in Christianity, we had a thing called an altar call. And I get Christians all the time, why don't you have an altar call? Altar calls are great. I'm not against altar calls. Here's the problem theologically with the altar call. It replaced baptism. I cannot tell you how many friends of mine who are Christians and when I asked them to share their testimony They said I went forward to an altar call. That's great. Tell me when you were baptized and they haven't been Listen altar calls are fantastic from time to time. We do them at Sandals Church as the spirit moves But listen to me and don't get this twisted. Baptism announces my faith publicly. I know there's a lot of you here today and I don't mean to convict you but I'm going to. You're currently living with somebody that you're not married to. I want to challenge you. There are many people today when it comes to marriage, they say, oh, it's just a piece of paper. It doesn't matter. Listen to me single people. There will be a line of people in your life to love you privately. Real love is always public. Always. Real love says I want everyone to know. Tammy is not just someone I sleep with. She's my wife. I love introducing her as my wife. It's my wife. You see, Jesus doesn't want private followers. He wants public ones. Baptism is where you look your family and your friends in the face and you say, you know what? I've been inspired by the love of God. I've been enabled to change my life by the love of God. And that love has pointed me to Jesus and Jesus has challenged me to get baptized. You see, baptism symbolizes my spiritual cleansing. Why do you take a bath? You stink, that's why. You stink! You bathe because there's a physical odor and you need to be cleansed. Baptism is not a physical bath. It's a spiritual bath that symbolizes a spiritual cleansing. Do you know why many of you resist baptism? Because you're not like the sex worker who loves much. You're like the Pharisee who said, I don't need a bath. I'm not. I hear this all the time. I'm not that bad. that will keep you from a real relationship with Jesus. Why did I pick this story? Because the woman baptized Jesus with her tears. Because of her sin and guilt. I want you to know this. Jesus wants to baptize you with water because of His love and grace. What moved her to anoint Jesus with all that she had? Her love for Him. What motivates God for you to want to be baptized? For Him to want you to be baptized? His love for you. And I want you to think just for a minute. I want you to think about all the division in our country. Think about the division racially. Think about the division culturally, politically. Think about the issues even amongst gender. Like we're so divided. We're divided rich and poor. You know what baptism says? We're all sinners. And we're all united by Jesus. You see, baptism, and this is what's so important, it shows that we're together. It makes us equal. Nobody's special or unique or gets out of this. Why do you think Jesus did it? Because Jesus never asks you to do something He wasn't willing to do Himself. He's not just the greatest man who ever lived, He's the greatest leader who ever lived. You see, Jesus didn't give you a powerful TED talk on how to live your life. Listen to me. He said, follow Me. Follow Me. You know what's wrong with our leaders today? They tell us to do things they don't do themselves. Baptism is powerful. I have very few memories of my childhood. My dad was a Southern Baptist pastor. But I remember when I was eight years old being baptized. And I remember what he said them, because remember I was going to be underwater for half the sentence. But he said, we're brothers. I was like, so I get to do whatever I want? He's like, no, no, that's not what he means. But here's what my dad was saying. He was saying baptism makes a father and son equal. And I just want to challenge you today. Man, if you're discipling somebody, you're sharing Christ with somebody, you need to be explaining to them why they should be baptized. Because here's the thing, if you don't think you need a spiritual bath, then you don't think you need Jesus. And, and, and why is it this woman at this house who is a sex worker knows more about how to get right with God than some of you who've been in church your whole life? Because in this story, you have two choices. You can be the sex worker who goes home right with God and at peace, or you can be the religious scholar, the Pharisee, and Jesus walks right out of your house, and He didn't know you and you didn't know him. So let me say this, you need to be able to articulate and explain to people why baptism matters. Because we all need to be cleansed by God. And it is a physical representation of what you know you need to explain to God right now why you haven't been baptized. Don't argue with me, argue with Him. Because this is an essential. This is an essential. Part of our spiritual heritage, at Sandals Church, there's people that you'll never know and you'll never meet, they died for your right to be baptized. Do you understand that? They died. They gave up their life so that you could know that you have a choice to make and you should choose baptism. Baptism is not something we force on people. It's not something that we make people do. It's something that they do just like the woman nobody told her to pour out all her life savings at the feet of Jesus She did that because she met Jesus We never make people get baptized But we are honored as a church to share in that act of obedience and to Baptize people in the name of the Father in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit. Because you know what baptism is? It's a picture of what's actually happened when you gave your life to Jesus. Whatever you were, is gone. And you know what's ahead? Heaven. Heaven. And that's why he told a woman who'd had a horrible life, he said, go in peace. Because that's her future. The past is the past She met Jesus and the future is heaven As a Christian you need to know why people need to be baptized You need to be able to articulate that and if you call yourself a Christian and you are not baptized You need to do it You can sign up today at Samuels Church. Look, I love you I know this this sermon was kind of a punch, but it was a punch in love And let me just say this. I Don't want to preach something like this. So you feel guilty. I want to preach something like this so you can feel God And there's something very very powerful when people truly connect with Jesus and We all are called to change Let me pray for you. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we pray in the name of Jesus, Lord, that we would live out the essentials. Love you. Love people. Live on mission. God, part of that mission today, Lord, is to inspire people to be baptized and make a way for people to do that. And for some of us today, it's to take our first step of obedience and get baptized. Lord, let us never apologize as a church for baptism. It's not something we have to do, it's something we get to do. It is such a blessing. Lord, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would baptize all of us right now in your Spirit and just comfort us. Remind us today that we are loved. Not because we love you, but because you first loved us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray this in Jesus name, amen. You can also give to Sandals Church at any time by going to donate.sc. Thanks for being a part of this place. Thanks for being a part of this place. We hope you have a great summer.