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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:I wanna welcome you to Sandals Church today and I just wanna begin by being honest. The vision of Sandals Church is being real with ourselves, God and others. And I just wanna be real with you. I'm really struggling with the message today. The word of God says preach in season out of season.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Basically, when you feel like it and when you don't. And and today's one of those days where where I don't feel like preaching. I don't feel like I'm there emotionally. I'm having some some some deep questions as many of you are with God spiritually. I'm grieving for our country and for a myriad of reasons.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And not just all of those are about Charlie Kirk. It's just about the continued violence, the political violence. I feel like very quickly we're turning into Columbia where we just kill everybody that we disagree with. And, one of the things that makes us free as a country is the freedom of speech. And when we silence that, we're not free.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're not free. We have big armies but we're not free. And so today I wanna talk about unleashing the spirit of God in my life because here's the thing, you can't change America, I can't change America but God can change America. And if we unleash the spirit of God in our lives, there's hope. But if we go it about ourselves, there'll just be more anger, there'll be more violence.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if we're not careful, there will be war. And and that scares me to death. Because as we've focused our private lives on Facebook, on Instagram, on X, on TikTok, we've become so divided against each other and so quick to judge the other side as evil. And so I want you to open your Bibles in Matthew chapter 12. And this is really where the tide begins to turn.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus has been a rising political star. Now I use those words carefully. A rising political star because many people believe, hey, this is our new king. This is the one that's going to free us. This is the one that's going to to lead us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, in our country, we have an election every four years where we hope somebody new is going to change our lives for the better forever. They've been waiting for four hundred years, not four years, four hundred years. And Jesus is doing these extraordinary things, and people are very, very hopeful. But listen to this, others are becoming very, very critical. And so crazy things happens.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People begin to nitpick and criticize and throw stones. And no matter what he does, his disciples are hungry in the beginning of Genesis or excuse me, in the beginning of Matthew chapter 12. And so they're walking through fields and they pick grain. And they're condemned for that because they did it on the Sabbath day.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:there are many of us even as Christians, we are more interested in being religious than we are being right with God. And Jesus scolds those religious people who listen to me very carefully are more political than they are religious. And they see him as a threat because if if he is the king of kings, if he is the lord of lords, what do they do? They just got unelected. And so they began to be very critical of him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're not careful, you can find yourself on the wrong side of Jesus. Jesus goes into synagogue, the church of his day, and there's a man there with a withered hand. Now we don't know how this happened. I I kinda think stroke victim. If you've ever seen a stroke victim, they they curl up oftentimes on one side when the body no longer works.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so this individual is sitting in synagogue wanting to hear the word of God. And Jesus says, is it right to heal somebody on the on the Sabbath? And there's criticism. And he says, of you if you had an animal that falls into a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn't go rescue it? And then he says, how much more is a man worth than an animal?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he goes up to the guy and just listen to this. He touches his withered hand, his hand that does not respond neurologically. His muscles don't work. It's shriveled and almost dead. And Jesus touches it and it's healed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And instantly people oppose him. And here's what it says, they realized from that moment they had to destroy him. Think about it. What on earth in your life has to go wrong when you see a miracle like that and your response is I gotta kill this guy. But that's where we are today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:On both sides, there are wackos on both sides. It was just a couple months ago where an evangelical Christian like myself who's preached in Africa dressed up as a police officer knocked on the door of Democrats and he killed them. Why do you think he did that? I think he did that because he thought he was acting in the name of God. I believe he was acting in the name of the devil.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's another person that we don't know who, who this week sat up on a college campus with a rifle and shot Charlie Kirk in front of his family and friends. I would imagine that person thought they were doing what was right. How do we get so twisted? We gotta be so careful and that's what we're gonna talk about today. Because there's so many Christians out there today that are calling for revenge, calling for revolution.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me church, we are called to reconciliation. That's making peace between people and God. So in Matthew 22 verses through 22 through 32, it gets worse. Then Jesus, excuse me, then a demon oppressed man who is blind and mute was brought to Jesus. Now some of you you're new to Christianity like, wait a minute demons are real?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Write that down. Wait a minute. I can be possessed? Yes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Write that down. Some of you are more naive than you should be about spiritual reality. So there was a demon possessed man or oppressed man who was blind and mute and was brought to him and Jesus healed him so that the man spoke and saw. So he can't speak and he can't see. Jesus heals him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Boom. Instantaneously. And look at this next verse. And all the people were what? Do you see the word?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amazed. And you should be. Wow. That's incredible. And then here's the question.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can this be the son of David? Now this is a political statement. Is he the king of the Jews? Is he the one who's going to set us free from Roman oppression? Is this him?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So you would think all Jewish people would celebrate. All Jewish people would get excited. But here's the thing, Jewish people are people. They're just like you. They're just like me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're just like Americans. We are always divided. We wanna win as long as it's our group that wins. So listen to this. But when the Pharisees, this is a a religious slash political group and they and they served both in their country.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They served as religious pastors, but they also served as politicians. They voted on laws. They they determined how people could live. They they released money for projects. They they did all kinds of things that governments do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So they had two jobs. So but when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by the power of Beelzebub. And you're like, well, who's Beelzebub? It translates it for us. Beelzebub is the prince of demons.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what they're saying is this is not God. This is the devil. This is evil. Now here's the thing. When you begin to believe that about people, when you believe people are evil, you will excuse yourself to do evil things to them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They said he does this by the prince of demons that that this man casts out demons. Wow. So the reason they believe is that Jesus can kick out demons is he's the prince of demons. Now that makes no sense but that's what happens when you go nuts. Some of you are so wrapped up in conspiracies, you've lost Christ.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You've lost Christ. It's a mess. I mean, some of the things I love you, you believe are nutty. Nutty. And you're all up in this stuff.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus says knowing their thoughts. Listen to this, knowing their thoughts he said to them. Look at this verse, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. Let's just talk about America for a second. Some of you think China is our greatest debt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you think it's Russia. You know, some of you think it's this magical group of individuals that live somewhere and they control everything, but they can't fix potholes. They can't fix traffic. Listen to what Jesus is saying. The enemy is not without.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The enemy is always within. Do you know the greatest threat to Sandals Church is not non believers, it's not the devil, it's the people who attend Sandals Church. That's the greatest threat. You wanna know the greatest threat to your marriage? It's the husband and the wife.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You wanna know the greatest threat to your family? It's the children that run around and play. And those of you who don't have children are like, no. Yes. Jesus says, no city or house divided against itself will stand.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen. Now some of you don't know your history but in AD seventy, the Roman Empire attacked Israel and destroyed the capital. And here's the thing you need to know, the Jews were doing pretty good against the Romans until they turned on each other. Some of you didn't know that, you don't know your history. And guess what the rival group started doing?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Murdering each other inside the walls. And so guess what Rome did? We'll just wait until you're done killing each other and then we'll come in and kill you all. Listen to what Jesus says, and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. Now let me tell you something Satan knows.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He has a smaller army and less power and he will not tolerate division. He knows he's outgunned. He's outmanned and so they work together. We as Christians struggle with that. We can't agree on anything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's hard to build unity. Listen to me families. I want you if you got multiple kids to to take a vote on the way home today from church and say, where should we eat? I don't care what you pick or who wins. All the kids who lost hate you, hate the family, don't believe in God anymore.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And do you know why? They don't really care where they eat, they just wanted to win. They just wanted to win. Listen to this question. How then will his kingdom stand?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It doesn't. Why is the church so broken? Because we don't stand together. Amen. We criticize one another, we blast one another, we tear one another down.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My son goes to our young adults and he said that we had Christians come from another church. And I was like, oh, that's great. And he's like, it wasn't so great. Because they were challenging our theology. They wanted to change us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm like, why don't you go reach some lost people instead instead of trying to debate us on what we believe baptism is? Ain't that crazy? Yes. What a lot of Christians do is they spend their whole life trying to convert people who already believe. And that's how they grow their churches.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's how they grow their kingdoms. At Sandals Church, we don't wanna reach church people. We want to reach lost people. Amen? Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's say we're all in the Titanic and it sinks and we're trying to convince other people from lifeboat our lifeboat because it's the right lifeboat. That's what churches do. Well, we go through the lifeboat manual verse by verse. We never play video on our lifeboat. We don't let women speak on our lifeboat.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, I could go on. Our our lifeboat manual is in the King James version. Or what we could do is say there are people drowning on the boat and they're dying and we can work together and save them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's what we could do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But what most Christians would rather do is argue over whose lifeboat's the best, whose lifeboat is rowing right. Listen to me. We're all wrong somewhere. When I meet Jesus, you know what he's gonna say? You did okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You did okay. Because everybody's wrong somewhere. So listen what Jesus says. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Because here's the thing, Pharisees and Jewish leaders could cast out demons too.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They had some authority, they just weren't the son of God. But listen to this. And if I cast out demons by Baalzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. What he's saying is you guys are a bunch of hypocrites.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You do the same thing I do. You just don't like it when I do it. And this is what happens to politics. I mean, there are some of you out there, if Donald Trump cured cancer, you would say, well, he caused it. Then there are other of you, no matter what Joe Biden did, it was all bad.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know my mom got a bonus check this week for Social Security? It came from Joe Biden. You know what I say? Thanks. My mom's 80.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thank you. Now I don't agree with a lot of what he does, but thank you. When a politician gets it right, celebrate it. Do we need politicians to get more right? Yes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I think we do. They get enough wrong. Can I get an amen? Amen. So when they get a home run, let's cheer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But some of you are so focused on your team winning, you're gonna make us all lose. You're gonna make us all lose. The church should be different. In the White House this week, one republican called for a moment of silence for the death of Charlie Kirk. One side booed and refused.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me, If you are on the side that celebrates the assassination of anyone, you're on the devil's side.
Audience:That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't don't don't don't I don't wanna see the cross around your neck. You're on the devil's team. A 31 year old father of two and husband of one doing what he believed exercising his right was assassinated in front of college kids. And if that excites you, you're on Satan's team. Even if you disagree, you should be weeping.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You should be weeping. He says, therefore, they will be your judges. Listen to this, but if it this is man, this is some of the scariest language in the Bible. But if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, Then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Listen to what Jesus says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? If Jesus wants to deliver you, he first has to beat up Satan for you. And some of you have gotten accustomed to that strong man and you don't want to let him go. Then indeed he may plunder his house. Look, let me just be honest with you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you wanna become a Christians and Jesus comes into your life and you're expecting peace, he needs to do some plundering. He needs to do some renovation. Some of your houses need to be torn down. Oh, you invite him in the front door, but he never gets to leave the front door. You say right here, Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't come into my bedroom. Don't look at my computer. Don't look at my finances. Don't look at what I watch on TV, and don't No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. The son of man wants to come in and plunder because here's the thing. The devil is not only in you, he's in your house. Amen. And if you don't let him bind the strong man, you will never be set free.
Audience:That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen what he says, whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters. So he's talking to his own people. These are the people, the Pharisees were the people that taught him the word of God. Taught him Hebrew. Taught him how to study.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He had to learn just like you and I do, taught him in synagogue. These are his professors. This is his university and he's saying, you guys are on the wrong team. And then Jesus says some of the scariest words ever spoken. He says, therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And whoever speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the holy spirit will not be forgiven. You know, as I was prepping for this, I noticed something. People take God's name in vain. People take Jesus name in vain. Have you ever noticed nobody takes the Holy Spirit's name in vain?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's almost like this subconscious human wisdom. Ain't that crazy? There's a seriousness when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, look, say say whatever you want about me. But if you do this to the Holy Spirit, you will not be forgiven in this age or the age to come.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:These are the scariest words in the Bible. What he's saying is you can't be forgiven if you do
Audience:this. So
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:how do I unleash the spirit of God in my life? How do I do that today? To unleash the spirit of God in my life, look at this, I have to recognize the Holy Spirit's work. So here's what's happening. The Holy Spirit is working in Jesus and some of you guys didn't know that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When Jesus is born, when he's consummated, Okay? And we live in a culture and this is foul, this is gross but excuse me, this is our culture. We have protesters running around saying that God raped Mary. Mary was a virgin. She was a virgin.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The Holy Spirit came upon her. There was not sexual interaction, there was a miracle. The spirit of God came upon Mary and Jesus was in her womb all of a sudden. So he's born by the spirit. And then when he begins his ministry and he's baptized, what falls upon him?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The holy spirit in the sign of a dove. Amen. So Jesus is born of the spirit and he does his work by the power of the spirit. And as Christians, we need to do our work by the power of the spirit. Can I just share this with you?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's easy to be on the wrong side of God's spirit. It's easy. You wanna know why I didn't post about the death of Charlie Kirk? And can I not say death, the assassination? I I I'm tired of the word tragedy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's not a tragedy, it's terrorism. A tragedy is an accident. This wasn't an accident. You wanna know why I didn't post? Because I didn't think I could do it in a way that honored God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The Bible says human anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. And I use angry. This is the first person that's ever been assassinated that I've met, I've talked to, that was kind to me. Do you know Charlie Kirk's last words to me were? He said, hey, I'll pray for you pastor Matt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what I'm doing today? I'm praying for him, his wife, his family, his kids, our nation. It's easy to get on the wrong side of the spirit of God. And you wanna know why? Because our emotions are like kill them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's not the spirit of God. In order to change the world, only one person needed to die. His name was Jesus. And oh, by the way, we killed him. Acts seven fifty one.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at this. You stiff necked people. What does that mean? Stubborn. And the older you get, the worse this is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? You stiff necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. You're broken on the inside and the outside. You always resist the Holy Spirit. And do you wanna know what the audience did to the person who preached this sermon?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They killed him. His name was Steven. Listen to me, if you're a Christian, I love you. But the people who know the most about God's word are often the people who resist the spirit's work. Some of you grew up in church and you do not believe in God the father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I love you, but listen to me, you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Scriptures. Do you know who wrote this? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wrote this. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't have Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We need the Holy Spirit. Matthew twelve twenty four, but when the Pharisees heard it, said it is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons that this man cast out demons. They rejected him. Look at this. A rejection of the spirit's work is a rejection of God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It is. And I get it. Some of you've been around charismatics and charismatics can get a little weird. Can I get an amen? I love my charismatic.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm speaking at a charismatic church next week. They love to pray in tongues.
Audience:I wrote them a Honda. I wrote them a Honda. I'm like buy a Camry.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what I'm saying? Buy a Camry. You'll get there quicker. But here's the thing at least they are trying to participate in the spirit when many of us we just said no. We just said no.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you understand what happens to your life when you tell the holy spirit to take a hike? Look at Matthew twelve thirty two. And whoever speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven. Praise God. Aren't you glad for grace?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen. But whoever speaks against the holy spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or the age to come. This is serious stuff, church. King David, who was Israel's greatest warrior, he's in the Old Testament. And God prophesied that the Messiah, Jesus would come through the line of David.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But David sinned, David blew it. David murdered a loyal servant to cover up the fact that he had sex with his wife. But listen to what David's afraid of. Psalm fifty one eleven. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me, if you got no spirit in your life, there's no God in your life. So here's what I wanna challenge you today. Look at this, open up myself to the Holy Spirit's power. Now I'm not asking you to get weird. There's enough weirdos out there.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I get an amen? Like, I don't need you to wave a flag. You know, stripping in church. We will tackle you. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You don't need the spirit, you need Prozac. Amen? Bring it down a notch. But that's not most of our problems. Most of our problems is we're not flag wagon, waving tongue speaking, freakazoid robots for the kingdom.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We don't even move. First Thessalonians five nineteen, do not quench the spirit. Some of you turned the faucet off long ago. Just give me the word of God. Well, you know what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The sermon works a lot better when you have the power of the spirit. Amen. So let's talk about what the spirit's power will do. Here's the number one thing. The spirit's power will convict me of sin.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You wanna change America? Change yourself. You want America to repent? You start. You start.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus says this in John 16. He says, and I will send him to you and when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin. Why does everybody hate Jesus? The Holy Spirit convicts the world of its sin. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if you forget this, you're gonna go to a church with too many flags and not a cross and not a cross. Jesus didn't come to empower your sin, he came to deliver you from it. And I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. Come on now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I just say this? I don't know who needs to hear this, but it is easier to be critical of others rather than to be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Where do you need to be convicted of your sin today? Let me give you a couple areas. Three, How about your pride?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What kept the pharisees from seeing Jesus? I mean, can you imagine if we brought up a stroke victim up here on church? He had a withered hand, he couldn't walk, he couldn't see. And I just prayed over him and his hand went like, boo boo. Some of you would be forever changed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you are so hard hearted. You'd be like that was some kind of magic trick. Because you're prideful and you don't want to repent. You don't wanna be saved. You know why?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You don't think you need to be. You know why most people drown? They didn't think they needed help. I got this. That's why most people drown.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, you know you can't swim. What are you doing? Unbelieving. Unbelieving. Unbelieving.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. You're drowning. How about this next one, fear? Can I just confess to you? The moment Charlie Kirk Kirk got shot, I I have a great fear of every time I stand up in front of masses of people that there's gonna be some idiot in the crowd that wants to shoot me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I think about it all the time. I'm afraid. Are you afraid? How about addiction? Oh, I could quit alcohol if I wanted to.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I just don't want to. That's because you're an addict. How about secrecy? Let
McKay Vandenberg:me tell
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:you what Jesus said last week. All the secrets come out. You wanna know what there isn't in heaven? Secrets. But next, here's what we need.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we need to start with repentance. And listen to me, if you don't start with repentance, I don't believe you're gonna get anything that I say in the next few minutes. We need the spirit's power will unleash gifts. The holy spirit doesn't just doesn't just convict you, he empowers you. Man, how many of you need power in your marriage?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Raise your hands. How about power raising a kid? How about power making your bills? How about power not losing your ever loving mind? First Corinthians twelve four.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit is the source of them all. Listen to me, the Holy Spirit determines which gift you give. I wanted singing. The Lord says no. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he's put other people in my life to affirm I don't have that gift. First Corinthians twelve eleven, it is the one and only spirit, the holy spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. So you can pray for the gift of tongues until you are blue in the face. And if the holy spirit doesn't wanna give it to you, you don't get it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we got these churches that are like, repeat after me.
Audience:I rode on my Honda. I rode on my Honda.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I rode on my Honda. And you're like,
Audience:I drive a Camry. I drive a Camry.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me. If the holy spirit wants you to speak in tongues, there's nothing that's gonna stop that. Amen. There's nothing that's gonna stop that. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. So let's talk about the gifts. The gifts of the spirit include now this is not an exhaustive list. This is just my summary to try to baptize you in the fact that there are powers out there that you don't know that you don't know about. Some of you have them but don't use them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here's the primary gift, leadership. Leadership. Let me tell you something. You wanna know why I'm so brokenhearted about Charlie Kirk? Because he was a leader.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He was a he's 31 years old. Some of you haven't had a part time job at Starbucks and you're 31. He got after it. He was a leader. He galvanized a movement of college students.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And people are like, well, he dropped out of college. Yeah. And he changed college life. He's a leader. Some of you, God is going to ordain and call you to be a leader, and you're like, I don't think I could do it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And God's like, I know. That's why I send my spirit. Being a leader is a scary thing. Thank God I have the Holy Spirit who helps me. And some of you are like, well, can't speak.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Has the Holy Spirit called you to lead? We need leaders. You know what we have enough on this earth? Followers. We're just like, everybody's going this way.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, no. No. We need leaders. Parents, raise your children to be leaders, to use their own brains, make their own decisions, figure out what truth is. Raise them to be leaders.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if you got a kid that's always talking back, that's probably a leader. Right here. It is. My mom better be amen ing right now. So these are the gifts of administration.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:These are the gifts of eldership. These are the gifts of ministers at Sandals Church. The the there's all kinds of areas where you can lead in the church and you don't have to speak or sing. K. Many of our leaders were like, just lead.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Just stop singing. Don't rap. Just lead. Okay. Next.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Speaking. Speaking. How we say and what we say matters. Here's what the Apostle Paul says, we speak in such a way that perhaps we will convince our opponents. I wish you guys had the passion that Charlie Charlie Kirk had for America.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wish you had that for Christ. You wanna know why you've never changed anybody's mind? You never tried. So so how do we know if maybe we have the gift of speaking? Preaching.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's how you know if you have it. And even if your mom is like, you don't have the gift. Hold on. You don't have the gift. Well, maybe it's not preaching.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's a different it's a different thing to stand up in front of thousands. Think about some of you have the attention span of a goldfish. Do you know how hard it is to get your attention when you're like, I'm trying to save your soul, and you're a goldfish in the bowl. And here's the thing, some of you say, well, I just think we should go deeper. Great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Join a discipleship group because the next group we need are teaching gifts. I'm not a great teacher. You know what I say? You're dumb. Why aren't you getting this?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what teachers are great? Teachers are great at teaching people who know nothing, something. I lose my mind. I don't have that gift. Dude, if you wanna drown, let me teach you how to surf.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because I'll be like 300 yards away, gone. I'm like the worst teacher. Well, I can preach. Yeah. Can preach.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I can tell you to get out of the water. Shark. Shark. But some of you are teachers. Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you need to be in a discipleship group teaching people who know nothing. Dude, one of my friends who leads a discipleship group at our church, he challenged them to all read their bibles and he asked one of the guys in his group, he said, what'd you guys read this week? He said, I read this letter by a guy named Roman. Who's Roman? That's Sandals Church, dude.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's like, well, Roman is the book of Romans that is a city called Rome. Also it was named after Roman? No. No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. No. Okay. Let's look at this next one. Tongues.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is a real gift. It's a real gift. People have it. I don't have it. I've prayed for it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I've asked for it. I I just never got it. The Lord's like, you struggle enough with regular language. Stop making fun of people. Stop putting and if anybody pressures you or says you are a second class citizen because you do not have that gift, they are a liar, and they are dividing the kingdom of God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some people have it and some people don't. It's the way it works. Some people can sing and many of you cannot. But it's the ability to speak in tongues or I I think sometimes it's the ability to learn languages very quickly as you evangelize the world. Sometimes it's the ability to pray in tongues and those are beautiful things.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Next, speaking gift. Evangelism. You know what that is? The ability to tell people about Jesus. How do you know if you have this?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Well, when you tell people about Jesus, they get saved. And you feel like, I share the gospel every week and no one gets saved. You don't you don't have the gift. You know? The other day I shared the gospel and they converted to Buddhism.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Stop. Stop. Okay. We're going slow.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here we go. Next one is wisdom. Okay. This is a whole set of spiritual gifts. Here's one.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:A word of knowledge. This is so important in our small groups. How many of you guys have been in a small group where somebody shares something stupid? You're not in a discipleship group. You're not meeting with people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People say stupid stuff all the time. You know what a word of knowledge is? I really feel like God is saying that's not a good idea. That's a word of knowledge. Now you don't say God said because you're not a prophet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You say things like this, I'm convinced the Lord has said, I think the Lord is saying, I feel like God is saying. That's dumb. Don't don't don't add the last part. You can think it but don't. Alright.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Next one, discernment. Discernment is the ability to know when somebody speaks in a tongue or speaks in a prophecy. It's the ability to know if it's right. You know every time somebody says, the Lord said? You know how many times I'm like, that's not what he said.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. You had pancakes. You're on a sugar high. Okay. This next one's huge.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I put this under the gift of knowledge, gift of interpretation. It's the ability to understand the tongue and tell the rest of us what it said. And by the way, listen to me in every instance. And all my charismatic brothers, I love you. I hear everybody speaking in tongues, which the bible says don't do two or three at once, and then there must be an interpretation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It is the most disregarded gift in the bible. And if we're all going, Rota Honda, you know, and nobody's interpreting, it just makes us look weird. Alright. Last gift, miracles. Man, God, we need this one.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let me tell you what specifically I think we need, healing. And here's why. What does America need? Healing. Healing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know what the church's role is? To bring healing. Next, serving. And some of you guys, it doesn't matter what we ask you to do at church, you just wanna be here and serve. And you know what that is?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's a gift. And I hate this. People like, well, you need to have boundaries. You know what? You don't have the gift of serving.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Shut up and let them serve. No. No. Seriously. There are some of you, you feel the presence of God when you're doing dishes, when you're changing diapers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You feel the presence of God when you're picking up trash. Remember it was two women that went to the tomb to wash the body of the dead Jesus. They had the gift of serving. And then lastly, giving. I met this guy this week.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He started a an app called overflow and he came out of Google and he just realized the church is not good at collecting money. I wanna help the church raise money. He started this program and he's like a billionaire himself. And he's one of the most generous people I've ever met. Some of you, God is going to bless so that you can bless his church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I I'm praying right now for millionaires in this church who will give crazy amounts of money because no matter what they give, the Lord just keeps giving them more. Okay. And so just say, Lord, give me the gift of giving. You know, and I'll give you like 5% that you don't have the gift of giving. Second Chronicles seven fourteen, sorry this is a long message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, do you see repentance And turn from their wicked ways. Look at this. Then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. We need to do that today. So what I'm gonna ask you to do right now is just enter a time of repentance.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And even if you're watching from a campus, you're watching from home, would you just bow your heads right now and confess your sin? I'll start first, Lord, I'm angry. I'm angry. I'm angry at the senseless loss of life in Minneapolis, in Utah, in North Carolina, at the school in Colorado, at the Santa Ana shooting yesterday. Lord, I I'm just I'm angry.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord, but my anger does not produce your righteousness. So would you remove that from my heart? And then I'm gonna invest invite everyone to do something. There are about 40,000 people a week that watch Sandals Church. I don't know if you've noticed but prayer has been.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What if we unleash the power of prayer today? So I'm gonna ask you if you're able, would you get on your knees? In the studio audience, I'm gonna get on my knees. At every campus, even if you're watching from home. And let's pray for our country.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Father, Lord, as that shot rang out and I watched Charlie's body go limp. He was a man that prayed for me. He was a man that was kind to me. He was a man that was incredibly more famous than I will ever be and yet he made time for me. And he prayed for me in our church and God right now I pray for his family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But the burden of Charlie Kirk should be all of our burdens and that's America. Whether we're Democrat or Republican, whether we're an independent, or we've just given up, our country is broken. It is violent. It is hateful, bigoted, and racist. And Lord, we are also quick to find out what's wrong with everybody but ourselves.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God, let us begin today by repenting. We repent of our sins. We invite you Holy Spirit to convict us and we ask in the name of Jesus that you were empower us right now with supernatural gifts beyond ourselves so that we could be ministers of reconciliation. Move in our hearts first, move in our church, and help us heal The United States Of America. We pray this in Jesus' precious name and all God's people said, amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I love you Sandals Church.
Morgan Teruel:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have the YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.