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The Debrief Podcast with Matthew Stephen Brown. Author and lead pastor of Sandals Church, Matt Brown debriefs current issues shaping our culture from a spiritual perspective.
Welcome to the debrief podcast with Matthew Stephen Brown. On this show, pastor Matt sits down with his friends to answer your questions about life, Jesus, and the bible. Let's get into the episode.
Tammy Brown:Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to the debrief podcast with Matthew Stephen Brown, where we get a chance to hear your questions about the sermon, about your life, about following Jesus, relationships, whatever they may be, and try to speak wisdom and give some spiritual insight into that. So before we get started today, this January, New Year's Eve, you and I did a little activity that you made fun of at and then had a good time doing it. Do you remember what it was?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yes. Yeah. Bingo.
Tammy Brown:So you've probably heard the term like, hey, that wasn't on my 2025 bingo card. And so this New Year's Eve, I decided we're actually gonna make some bingo cards for 2025, and we did. And these were things, we picked, like, some physical things, some spiritual things, relational, about our marriage, our kids, and we created a bingo card and took pictures with the idea that when we goals, if you will, when we check them off, when we get a row, we're gonna celebrate with some other people like, hey, I got these things done. Right. Will you share with everybody couple of the things that you put on your bingo card, if you remember?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. I do. So one is I went back to school. I'm gonna try to finish my doctorate. I'm not so sure that was a great goal.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm I'm hating Bingo. All of the reading that I'm doing. The other thing was to go to Ireland and figure out how to help the church there. Mhmm. And I I'm trying to think what else that I did.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I I I think I put more surfing, which I'm hoping to do this year.
Tammy Brown:You put, I I remember you put watch a few a certain number of sunsets.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. I don't remember specifically.
Tammy Brown:Both of us put one thing that we've checked off so far, which is to become grandparents.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Tammy Brown:So we've gotten that on there. So
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We didn't have to work as hard as our daughter did,
Tammy Brown:but No. I know. Yeah. It was just such a cool way to, like, sit down and sort of sort through
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Mhmm.
Tammy Brown:Some of our things this year. Because if you don't think through the things that you want to do Yeah. Life just happens to you, and so gave us some of that. So Yeah. Here's to bingo.
Tammy Brown:I hope I win.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's so funny you guys. So I keep I keep if I if you're watching and I keep fake smiling, Tammy and I were at this event where there's a movie director there and he's making this film and he came up to me and he says, you look like a darker, sinister version of Kevin Bacon.
Tammy Brown:And I was instantly like so attracted to Matt not long.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thank you. Well, I I was insulted. But I was like, dude, you gotta work on your compliments. But he literally said, you just need to smile more, so I keep catching myself like
Tammy Brown:Like fake smiling?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. I got a fake smile. So thanks for that, Mark.
Tammy Brown:Big big fan here, so I'm fine if you are running. Love it. I'll take it. Yeah. Okay.
Tammy Brown:Let's get into this episode's questions. Yes. This one comes from Cindy from Riverside. It says this, how do some people have the ability to see spirits of those that have passed? I have a friend that saw someone's dad and the clothes he had on when he when visiting her at their home, and their friend showed her a picture she had taken of her father the night passed, and it was the exact same clothes as described.
Tammy Brown:I have two friends that always experience this, and how can this be? It's a great question. Yes. Take it away.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So Cindy, you know, you know, I don't know how it can be. I don't know that I trust your friends. You know, people say a lot of and people see a lot of things. And so here's the thing that we need to understand is that, you know, Jesus is giving us So the teachings of Jesus about what happens when we die are clear signs pointing into the fog. And so we have to really deal with that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so we don't always understand exactly what that means. Understand exactly what that means. We have to be really, really careful. And, you know, Jesus talks about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and how they both die, they go to hell, and can't come back in that story. And, you know, there's part of me that would want to say, well, you know, Jesus indicates that people can't come back and talk to us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But most parables have one point, and I really think the point of that parable is that the poor will be taken care of in the next life. And so I don't know that it's a theological story about what happens when we die. It's that poor people will be taken care of, and rich people will be judged for how they lived. So, you know, how do some people have the ability to see spirits? Well, why do some people have red hair?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why do some people have blue eyes? Why can some people sing? Why are some people great athletes? God has given all of us a variety of gifts. Some physical, some spiritual.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I think some people are more spiritually attuned to experiencing God, feeling God, sensing God, and others have to work at it. Some people are good at math, they understand science, and other of us are just confused and give up and walk away. So people have different gifts, and the scriptures clearly talk about that, and so one of the gifts that Paul talks about is discerning of the spirits. So it's an awareness of what spirits are and where they come from. And so what I would say is how do people have the ability to see spirits of those who have passed?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know that they are the people who have passed. Satan is a liar, he's manipulative, demons can play into our biggest fears, they can pretend all things, you know, they can do all kinds of things. However, Cindy, there have been two times in my life when I believe that I've seen a ghost. Two times. The time we were on a men's retreat, and we were getting ready to walk up to the chapel at Forest Home, and my roommate, I just said, give anybody that doesn't have a roommate.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I didn't know my roommate. And he and I were walking up to the chapel, he said, I don't feel good, I said, you're going be fine, and he dropped dead in my arms. That happened, that was a real story. So I called Tammy, I'm like, I need you to look up this guy's name, you know, when you know when you fill out emergency contact? I'm like, we need his contact.
Tammy Brown:It's our men's retreat ever.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:men's retreat ever. So this guy dropped dead in my arm, I call his daughter, hey, can you meet me at the hospital? And she did, and then I had to go back to the room where he dropped dead and spend the night by myself later that night. I know. I woke up in the middle of the night and I had a vision, Cindy, I'm not saying this is real, I had a vision of him standing in the door.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he was wearing the exact same clothes that he had on when he dropped dead. And he was confused and lost. I don't know if this is real, I don't know if this happened, but I can still I can still remember. How many years ago was that?
Tammy Brown:Oh my goodness.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Fifteen, twenty years ago?
Tammy Brown:Twenty years.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Twenty years ago. I can as I'm talking about it, can still see him. So if it was a dream, it was an unusual dream. But he was standing there and I said, you can't stay here, you have to go. And he was sad and he left.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So the next time this happens was last year in Mammoth, and I was skiing with a couple of pastor friends of ours, and by the way, you have kids in the car, this story scared everybody to death so bad. None of these grown men, one of them a professor of psychology at San Bernardino State, could not sleep. So press pause, don't let your kids hear this.
Tammy Brown:Mhmm. Give a for pause.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah, give a But I walked into this room in Mammoth and it just felt off. Like I felt off, it was weird. I felt like there was something in the room, and then I found a squirrel in my it was a studio apartment, there was a squirrel in my room, so I got the squirrel out. So I thought, okay, maybe that's it. I was so disturbed, I kid you not, I slept with the bathroom light on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I wake up at 02:30 in the morning, I wake up and there's a woman standing on my bed. And I mean, this is like if for those of you who watched oh, what is it? Little House on the Prairie. She's dressed exactly like Little House on the Prairie.
Tammy Brown:Like a
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:lower ankles with your She has a bonnet on her head, her dress goes to her neck, she had the poofy shoulders and she's holding a black purse and she's completely covered from head to toe. And I said, you can't be here, you have to leave. And she said, no. And she refused to leave, and I said, in the name of Jesus, you need to leave now. And she left and she went right through the door.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I'm telling you, it was the realest thing, I don't know who she was, I don't know what she was. So Cindy, that's what I would say.
Tammy Brown:I'm so glad I wasn't with you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Was she a ghost? Was she a spirit? Was she the devil? I don't know. I don't know how to frame that experience in my theology.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All I know is I didn't want to be around her, and in both cases, I felt compelled to say, you need to leave. And that's what Jesus does Which
Tammy Brown:is probably a smart move
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:to do whenever this is So, you know, so here's the thing is, there's some confusion as about it is about exactly what happens when people die. I'll give you another example. We were newly married, I was about 25 years old, we had just got married, I was doing the dishes in Riverside, California, in our house, and I felt the presence of my grandfather say goodbye. And the phone rang and my grandmother said, my mother said, my dad just died. So I felt like I had an awareness somehow, and so here's the thing, Cindy, we don't know how we're connected to each other.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We don't fully understand that, but there was some kind of bond with my grandfather that when he died, I felt it and knew it somehow inside of me before the phone rang. So we don't understand all of our powers, all of our giftedness, all of our awareness.
Tammy Brown:And not every spiritual thing makes sense.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Yeah. That was a good point. Tammy Brown, not every spiritual thing makes sense. So we got to be careful that we don't draw conclusions from these spiritual experiences.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What I would say is we barely understand our physical world.
Tammy Brown:We
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:are babies when it comes to the spiritual world. We just don't know what's on the other side of the veil. We will know one day, we will experience that. When I take my last breath on earth, I believe my soul will go into the spirit world, and I will see things and know things. I don't know everything about that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All I know is my soul is entrusted into the hands of Jesus, and I believe that he's going to take care of me. Paul says to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord. So I'm going to be taken care of and stewarded by Jesus. I also believe there's a resurrection where both the living and the dead will be transformed in an instant, and they will have eternal bodies, and we will face the judgment of God. That's where some Christians disagree.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They think you face judgment right when you die. I think that there is a judgment, that we are waiting somehow for that day, everyone is waiting. That's just my personal opinion. So, you know, I would just say this. There are some people that are listening to me that are like, okay, you made up these stories.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't. They're real things that I experienced. I've always been very sensitive to horror films, I've been very sensitive to feeling haunting, presence, darkness. From a young age, I've had an awareness of things around me that could not be seen. Again, if you have kids in the car, press pause and listen to this later.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I remember as a child, a teenager, feeling things pull me in my bed, pulling my feet. I think there's been a spiritual battle for me since I was little. I think the Lord had a call in my life, and I think the enemy was trying to drag me to His will. I just believe that. From a very early age, I sensed the presence of God in a way that others didn't sense.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you say, well, that's not fair. Well, God's given me some gifts, Cindy, and he's given you some other gifts. So here's where the danger is, and this is what I think happens in charismatic churches. Somebody has the gift of tongues. Well, everybody has to have it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Somebody has to have a vision. Well, now everybody has to have a vision. And so the charismatic church presses these very unique gifts on everyone when we can't all sing, we can't all speak, you know, we can't all prophesy, we can't all have a vision. Like that's just, the body of Christ needs each other, and some people have unique gifts. And what we tend to do is we're jealous of the gifts that we think are greater, and we want those gifts, and oftentimes we fake those gifts.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what I would just say is, Cindy, what's more important is are you stewarding the gifts that God's given you, rather than wondering why some people have gifts that we don't have. So here's the thing with people's ability to see spirits. In the Bible, there's a witch, the witch of Indor. And Saul wants to bring up Samuel, okay? The witch does it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The witch brings the spirit of Samuel. There's no indication that it's not Samuel. Some people started to it's a demon, somehow she does it. And she's not supposed to do it. So here's what the Bible says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We are not to commit the sin of necromancy, which is speaking to the dead. The Bible doesn't say it's not impossible, it says we should not do it. And here's why. You don't know who you're talking to. And I have watched many even pastors get into exorcism, get into deep healing, and I've watched them go off the deep end.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because when you enter that world, it's kind of like Stranger Things. What's it called? Nether?
Tammy Brown:The upside down.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The upside down. It's upside down. You don't know what you're doing, and Jesus always casts those things away. He never talks to them, he doesn't ask for them for information, he sends them away. And so when I have encountered that, that's what I do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I do what Jesus does. I send them away because I don't know what they are. I don't know whether that man that died, and I'm sorry, I don't remember his name, I met him one time, I met him for an hour maybe, and he died in my arms. I don't know whether that was him or a demon masquerading as him. I don't know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know whether that was Little House on the Prairie whether it's a In both cases, I felt a sense to send it away. And here's the thing, when I said in the name of Jesus, they did, they left. So go ahead.
Tammy Brown:I was gonna say on that note, it's just making me think like there's TV shows right now where people are like going to what do they call it? Like a a mediator?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Mediator. Yeah.
Tammy Brown:I'm thinking of Mediator. Medium. Yes. A medium. Like, do you think that Christian should watch that?
Tammy Brown:No. Or or engage with that? No. Like, I just Yeah. It is interesting because it's so pop culture right now.
Tammy Brown:You're seeing tons of celebrities do that where they're like Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's so true. Or the idea of No. Would say going to like a palm reader
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:or whatever. All of that
Tammy Brown:That is looking onto the other side.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That is spiritual porn. Run away from it. It's not for you. So so think about porn. Porn is the perversion of intimacy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Mediums and tarot cards, it's the perversion of intimacy with God. That's what it is. You were designed you were designed for an intimate relationship with the one true God. You don't need to go through a palm reader, you don't need to look at tarot cards, you can go straight through Jesus. You have access to God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so what you're doing is you're violating the intimacy that you were made for with God, and you're bringing someone else into that. And here's the thing, some of it may be real, some of it may be true, but God says it's not good. And in the same way, he asked us to trust him with, okay, I have sexual desires, I want I want to do what I want, and the same way, I have spiritual desires, I want to know why why was my spouse taken? Why did my mom die? What are they thinking?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What are they feeling? Right? I miss them, and so I go to this medium who's talking to, we don't know who.
Tammy Brown:Absolutely.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We don't have any idea who that is. Mhmm. And here's the thing, even though that person may have the gift to talk to something, they don't know who that is. They have no idea what they're digging up, they have no idea what they're talking to, and here's the thing, that medium, some of it's manipulation, but sometimes it's real. And they are opening themselves up to
Tammy Brown:Well, and you, they're
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:opening you Yeah, and you. And you gotta be very, very careful. And when I see that stuff, I speak in the name of Jesus and I tell it to go away, because that's not for me. Some people, just like some people have clear vision, some people can see things that we can't see. So what I would say is the witch of Indore proves biblically that people can see that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Even in the book of Acts, there's this witch that's running around and she follows Paul. These guys are prophets of the Most High God. These guys are the prophets of the Most High God. Paul gets so frustrated, he tells her to shut up and rebukes it and takes away her gift. And it says she was consumed by a demon.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:A demon gave her spiritual gifts. And then people try to kill Paul because she could no longer prophesy after the demon was gone. So not only does the Holy Spirit give gifts, Cindy, spirits of darkness can give gifts and power. Think about the temptation of Jesus that Claude just preached on. Jesus, if you do these things, Satan says, I will give you these powers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I will give you these gifts. I have to assume that it's only a temptation if Satan had the authority to give those gifts. It's not lying. There are powers. Jesus is saying, nope, my power comes from God alone, and I am not interested in that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so I would stay away from that stuff, I think it's very, very dangerous, I think it's very, very manipulative. Most of that stuff is card tricks and manipulation. Every now and then it's real.
Tammy Brown:And that's scary that
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let me tell you something. You know, I was watching a guy from Australia, or New Zealand, sorry. Maybe it was New Zealand, he was fishing And he hooked a great white. And that great white turned on him and it came after him, and he's paddling with his GoPro and you see the great white, this sucker is fourteen, fifteen feet. And you can see the fin, and he's and I'm like, some of you guys, you hook the real thing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you watch this guy on TikTok, he is You can paddle all day long in a kayak, you are not out running a great white shark, and this sucker is nibbling at his rudder. And it is terrifying. And that's why I would tell people, don't get involved with the Ouija board, don't get involved with tarot cards, don't get involved with a medium A medium. Because you might hook the real thing. And when you do, it's the seven sons of Sceva in the book of Acts.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They go in to exorcise this demon, and the demon says, I know who Paul is, I know who Jesus is, and he says, but I don't know who you guys are. And he beats them naked. Like, that's the and so you got to be really, really careful with that stuff. So Cindy, great question.
Tammy Brown:Yeah, great question.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You you have two friends that always have this experience. Okay, always? I've had it two times. Two times I've seen what I would consider a ghost in fifty three years of life. So is it possible?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yes. I don't know how to interpret those things. I interpret things through the word of God, not my experience. And I actually, I remember we were skiing at Mammoth and so sitting with one of our pastors next day, I said, help me theologically wrap my mind around this experience. So a lot of people take their experience and develop a theology, I said, no no no no no.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I have my theology, help me to filter and understand this experience. Mhmm. So I used God's word to try to understand that. And at the end of the day, it was a real experience. I don't know what it was, I don't know who she was, I don't know if she was a she, you know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, like some of you guys are falling in love with a Russian lady and you know, it's uncle Smirnoff, and and it's a dude. You don't know who's on the Internet. You don't know who you're talking to. The same thing is true of the spirit world. You don't know what you've hooked.
Tammy Brown:So Be careful with the catfish.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Be careful with the catfish because Satan invented that. So,
Tammy Brown:yeah. We think that was now. Great question. Thanks. Okay.
Tammy Brown:This next question comes from a mountain community here in California called Crestline, and it comes from Amy, and it says this, in regards to prayer. I've heard some people praying in a way that uses words like, I declare that whatever will happen in Jesus' name, or oh, sorry. Is that a good way to pray is the question. Should we pray in a way that is declarative because of our great faith as stated in Mark eleven twenty three and twenty four? What does it mean when God doesn't give us the miracle that we declared?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Amy, I would encourage you to read my book Everyday a Miracle. I think that and I love my charismatic brothers and sisters. Mhmm. I think they bring a lot to the table.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is one of the areas where I think they wound people. You don't have the ability to declare anything. You just don't. We cannot order answers from God, we take orders from God. And I go through this specifically in my book.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So our faith is not in what God will do, our faith is in what God can do. So we just had our grandson born, and he was born with some problems breathing, and it was very scary. I didn't declare healing in the name of Jesus. Here's what I did, Amy. I walked the halls of the hospital literally praying, God, my faith is in not what you will do, my faith is in what you can do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, in the name of Jesus, heal my grandson. I didn't declare it, I asked for it. And so here's the thing that we need to understand. God is never motivated or moved by pride. Declaring is a prideful statement.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God is moved by the humble. God is moved by the contrite, God is moved by the sorrowful. What we need to do is humbly ask. I actually preached, remember when I preached at Saddleback? I talked with Rick Warren, it was the most bizarre thing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Rick Warren was going over my outline with me, the greatest outline writer of all time. And he's going over my outline and and I said, when you want something for God, I said, ask God for what you need. And he said, remember you were listening on the phone, he said, humbly ask God for what you need. Because in the story, the guy fell to his knees Mhmm. And asked Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So there's the you know, it didn't say in the Bible that he humbly asked, but his posture was that of humility. Mhmm. And I thought that was such a great thing that I think a lot of us I missed. I was preaching a sermon on healing. I was like, yep, I'm going put that in.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so I would say, Amy, that declaring is really a perversion of what God wants us to do. I think we need to have bold faith in what God can do. Mhmm. I think we need to humbly ask for what we want. And those are two separate things.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My faith is not in the outcome, my faith is in Jesus. Mhmm. And that's where I think they've gotten it twisted and they do great harm. You know, I declare I believe who are you? Like, you know, I declare there's a million dollars in my hand.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Well, I can't and I hear people, I'm going to manifest that.
Tammy Brown:Was going to say, like, let's talk about manifesting.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Going to manifest that. I'm like, you can't manifest anything. Now, you can change your attitude, you can be more positive, you can have hope.
Tammy Brown:You can get out and work for some things that you want.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Build words. I was looking at who's the guy that spoke at convoy? The funny guy, the older the bald guy? Come on.
Tammy Brown:Dave Ramsey? Dave Ramsey.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Dave Ramsey is funny.
Tammy Brown:A way to describe Dave Ramsey.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That guy
Tammy Brown:He's
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He was literally funny.
Tammy Brown:I didn't see that on my 2025 bingo card, how funny Dave Ramsey He he
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:said, when you feel silly, he said, kinda like a wiener in a steakhouse. Dude, I was like, I could live a million years and I would have never come up with Who
Tammy Brown:uses the word wiener
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:in a steakhouse? Who uses the word wiener in a steakhouse? But he had a tweet today that said, you know, God feeds the birds of the air, but he does not plant the worms in their mouth. So there is a part where we have to do things. Your grandpa used to say, you got to put feet to your prayers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So whenever we're praying, have to ask, is there something I need to do? So instead of saying God manifest this, God created me some wisdom of what I need to do to make this business happen, of what I need to do to understand my spouse, of what I need to do, you know, are there some things that I can do to increase the chances of this miracle that I'm asking for? You know, like if you're and I go through all of this in my book on miracles. Sometimes God uses doctors. Sometimes God uses counseling.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, sometimes we're praying for God to take away some pain, and what we need to do is go through a process of healing. There's so many, there are millions of people in the hospital, and there's nothing physically wrong with them, but they have a wounded heart. And there are physical manifestations of that wounded heart, and it's affecting your body. So what you need to go do is identify what's going on, and that's so important. So should we pray that way?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I would say no. I don't like it. I don't think it's helpful. I think it's manipulative and kind of like a rah rah cheerleading session.
Tammy Brown:But wouldn't you say Yeah. I mean, based on your book even there, there are some things to declare in prayer. Yes. And I would say what you kinda talk about in the book from our experience in life is you can declare God is good. Yes.
Tammy Brown:You can you can you can declare what you know he can do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yes.
Tammy Brown:And ask if he's willing to do See,
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:that's why she helps. You know?
Tammy Brown:Yeah. You know, there there are there are things that we need to declare. He does say there's power in prayer. Like, so speak to that, like, what are the things that we can declare of
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Well, like if somebody's saying I'm no good, I'm worthless, I declare that you are worth Christ in Jesus' name.
Tammy Brown:Because it aligns with what
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God's word It aligns with God's word. And so, you know, healing is another one of those things. Right? There are clear verses, you have not because you ask not. So it's a clear verse pointing into the fog.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what Jesus is saying is true, and not everyone gets healed in Jesus' name. Nobody can dispute that. Mhmm. But sometimes people do. In Jesus' name.
Tammy Brown:Mhmm.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They get healed. And, you know, but we don't know what God could do. You know, I saw God use me humbly to raise a kid from the dead. I was so anxious when our grandson I thought was going make it.
Tammy Brown:Which that's
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:certainly happened I raised somebody from the dead once, you know? Because I didn't do it. Yeah. The Lord the Lord decided to act through me, and I don't know if he's ever going to do that again. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so
Tammy Brown:As far as our grandson, his name is Weston. We call him Wes, and he is doing so well. He just he had some complications with his breath, and they just, you know, wanted to to make sure he was doing well, but he is and he is so
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:His grandpa wasn't doing well, but he's fine.
Tammy Brown:Yeah. I was Matt Matt was the one that needed to go to high school. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what does it what does it mean when God doesn't give us the miracle? We declare you're not God. That's what it means. So and that's a hard hard lesson to learn.
Tammy Brown:Yeah. So Yeah. Okay. Thank you for all of that. And such good questions
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thank you.
Tammy Brown:Today on that episode. Thank you for your wisdom and
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thank you for your correction.
Tammy Brown:So thank you guys again for listening, for joining Matt and I, for sending in your questions. Please send them in. We appreciate them and want to be a resource to you guys. Those of you that attend Sandals Church, those that don't, you're always welcome to join us. Yeah.
Tammy Brown:So if you like this, podcast and you find it meaningful, share it with your friends, share it with your family, especially if we hit on any questions today of people that you know are struggling with either the same question or have been in that situation, we would love that. So please, subscribe to it so you're always aware of when we release the episodes. And then we would love for you to support the podcast as it does take a resource to be able to make this happen. You could do that by going to sandalschurch.combackslashsupport. I don't even know if it's backslash/support, and do that.
Tammy Brown:And we are so grateful for that, Send those questions in. And until then, we'll see you next time.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Bye.
Scott Schutte:Thanks for checking out this episode. If you'd like to support this podcast, you can donate at sandalschurch.com/support. This podcast is a way for pastor Matt Brown to answer your questions about topics like the Bible, God, relationships, and culture. Like pastor Matt often says on the show, a podcast is not a pastor. If you'd like prayer or need to speak with someone about a specific situation you were going through, you can email us at help@sandalschurch.com.
Scott Schutte:If you enjoy this podcast, please like, comment, and subscribe. Thanks for being a debrief listener.