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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 Brian, and I am 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 Matthew Stephen Brown teaching from our Advent series. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was coming home last week from a trip from Denver. And as I was exiting the plane we all know how fun that is. Right? And we're exiting the plane, and I'm super impatient, and it's super cold, and I'm frustrated. And I'm making my way up, to the front where the stewardess, the flight attendant, is gonna say, thank you for flying.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And as I walk up, she does this to me. She goes, Yes, please. And I'm like, What? What do you mean, yes, please? And she says, Your sweatshirt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It says, Hope dealer. And I looked down, and I didn't realize I was wearing this. It was a gift. I was speaking in Denver, to a bunch of convicts who just got out of prison, and they gave this to me as a gift. And it was cold.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And without thinking about it, I put this on. And I thought how amazing that she was reading was on my sweatshirt before I even realized what it said. You see, when I was preaching in Denver, I was preaching to, criminals that are transitioning out from prison life to regular life. And I was gonna say, I don't know what because I don't look like anything hardcore at all. Like, you know, I mean, I I've never been to prison.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I shopped at the Gap once. That's it. That's as that's as hard as core as I am. And I remember I'm trying to find a seat, you know, as I'm speaking to these these men trying to turn their lives around. And so I picked this really old sweet guy, and I sat next to him, and I said, man, how long were you in prison?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says, 26 years. I says, me too at Sandals Church. And I said, what were you in for? And he said, murder. And I was like, man, I picked the wrong seat.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I was preaching to them on hope. And so whether you're getting out of jail and you've been in there for 26 years, or whether you're a flight attendant on an airplane, everyone needs hope. Everyone needs hope. And that's what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about hope.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Today, we're starting our series on Advent. And a lot of people, because we don't speak Latin anymore, we don't know what the word means. But Latin comes to us from the word arrival. It means to arrive. And today, I wanna talk about the arrival of hope.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There are so many in people in the world today that need hope. One of the worst times in Israel's history is found at the end of the book of Jeremiah. They've been conquered. They're being enslaved. Women are being sold off.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Their young fighting men are dead, and Jerusalem is burning. And out of that context comes one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. Jeremiah 29:11. Let's take a look at it. It says, for I know the plans I have for you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So if you feel like your life is on fire, if you feel like you're not at work but you're a slave, this verse is for you. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, even if that's what you're experiencing. He says, to give you a future, and listen to this, and a hope. Hope is essential.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I learned this this week as I was prepping for this message. Psychologists say that hope is essential to being a healthy human being. I didn't realize this, but did you know that hope dampens anxiety? How many of you guys have ever been anxious? K?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The next time you're feeling anxious, just know this, I'm running low on hope. Psychologists actually define the opposite of hope as fear. Isn't that interesting? I I I never thought that, but think of this. There's hope and there's hopelessness.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? There's hopeful and there's hopeless. And so oftentimes when we're not feeling hope, what we're feeling is fearful and we're feeling hopeless. Now, I don't know about you, but my brain function needs hope because hope improves brain function. So if you're taking a test and you're nervous about the outcome of the test, you will always do worse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But if you're hopeful, you do better. And some of you, your brains, you need a little hope. Amen? You know. You know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It may not just be that you're not smart. It may be that you're feeling discouraged and depressed depressed, and you're missing out on the hope that God has for you. Now this next one, guys, you don't just need to go to the gym. Did you know this? Hope increases physical strength.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Isn't that incredible? Like, you don't just need to work out. You need to go to the Hope Gym. It's called the church, where we teach you to have hope. That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now America has a perplexing history, and there's no more fun decade than the fifties. The fifties is fun, but also weird. And there's this psychologist, this doctor, excuse me, who who did tests on rats. And if anybody's an animal lover, I just want you to know I didn't do the test. I'm just telling you what he did.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But he was doing a test on the importance of hope. And so he took a bunch of rats. And you know what he did with them? He drowned them. And then he documented his findings.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I know it was the fifties. K? I didn't do it. But here's what he did. He took domesticated rats, rats that were pets, which if that's you, I'm praying for you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? There's hope for you that you'll get a real pet. But he took domesticated rats, and he took wild rats that were freshly caught out of the streets, out of the inner city. And he did a test, and he put them in a bucket of water to see how long they could swim for. Here's what's interesting.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The domesticated rats could swim for up to 9 days in the bucket of water. The wild rats, the rats that were more physically able And here's the thing you need to know about rats. They are excellent swimmers. That's why they live in sewer drains. That's why they're below New York City until Jesus comes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're excellent swimmers. It's They can get on every ship and they can swim for days. When he took the wild rats and he put them in the bucket, they drowned in minutes. So here was his hypothesis. Domesticated rats had been rescued before.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Wild rats had never experienced being saved. And so they gave up hope quickly. So in order to test this hypothesis hypothesis, he took the wild rats, he put them in the water, and right before they drowned in the bucket, he saved them. And then he put them back. And guess what happened to those same rats who drowned in the first few minutes?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They too could swim for up to 9 days. You see, hope changes what you think you can do. So if you're in the water and you think you're gonna drown, guess what's probably gonna happen. But if you think you can make it, if there's hope, guess what? You're gonna endure.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're gonna get through anything. So think about that if you're struggling in your marriage. If your marriage is hopeless, it is. But if there's hope, there can be healing. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't give up on your kids. Don't give up on your job. Don't give up on your life. What you need is hope. The word hope is found in the Bible a 140 listen to this, to a 150 times depending upon translation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I'm talking about our English word hope. K? So these are words in Hebrew and Greek translated into English as the word hope. A 140 to a 150 times, we find the word hope. How many times do you think the word hopelessness, the English word hopelessness, is in the Bible?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Two times, maybe 3 times if it's a modern translation. The bible, listen to me, is a story of hope. It's a story of hope. It's a story of how things went tragically wrong and, listen to me, how they will be made right. So if you feel like you're drowning, the Bible says, yep, yep, yep.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But there's someone that's coming to save you, and that's the story of Christmas. It's the arrival of hope. Hope is so essential. Some of you have never thought about this. You've been in church your whole life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You've studied the word of God your whole life, but you've missed how important hope is. Hope is so essential in the bible that it states it will last forever. First Corinthians 13:13. What does it say? Listen to this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Three things will last forever. What? Faith, hope, and love. Now love gets all the attention in first Corinthians 13, but some of you have missed out on hope. And do you know why that is?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because you can go weeks without food, you can go days without water, and you can go minutes without air, but you can never live without hope. We need hope. Hope is essential to life. That's why even in eternal life, hope will remain. Think about that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's hope in heaven. There's hopelessness on earth, but there's hope in heaven. Hope was meant to live forever, and you and I need it every day of our lives. God is the source of all real hope. This is why our world is so hopeless.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They put their hope in things that don't matter. They put it in politics, they put it in governments, they put it in medicine, they put it everywhere but where it actually comes from. In Romans 15:13, it tells us that hope, listen to this, comes from God. Some of you, you've read the book of Romans, but you've never stopped and looked at this. Look at this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It says, I pray that God, the source of what? All hope. All hope comes from God. And isn't it interesting as our society moves further and further away from God, what happens? We become more and more hopeless because God is the source of all hope.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The world says you can't. God says you can. So take a look at this verse. I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely, not with anxiety, amen? We already got that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Anybody full of that? Will fill you completely with joy and peace. Why? Because of your trust in Him. You wanna you wanna feel hopeless?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at your life. Look at your strength. Look at your bank account. Look at your kids. You're like, lord, where why'd you give me these kids?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's like, well, I had to work with your DNA. Right?
McKay Vandenberg:Hey, Sandals Church. Thank you so much for joining us for today's message. I wanted to take a brief moment and invite you into the work that Sandals Church is doing. One way you can do that is by giving financially. You can head to give.sc and give there.
McKay Vandenberg:For now, let's get back into our message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But when we look at ourselves, what happens? We are overwhelmed. But when we look at God, we are full of hope. And that's what the Christmas season is all about. It's about hope.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But so many people today are literally, I need this. I need this. And it's not just ex cons trying to transition into regular life. But here's the thing you need to know. This is why we exist as a church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is what we're all about. This is our purpose. This is our meaning. This is our mission. God's hope can only be found in Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's it. You see, you can be a Hindu and believe deeply in God and still miss out on hope. You can be a Buddhist and experience all that Buddha had to offer, all of his wisdom, and still be hopeless. You can be a devout Muslim and pray every day and try to live your life as righteously as you possibly can and still miss out on hope because the hope of God can only be grasped through Jesus. And if you know a Jewish friend, this is what they waited for.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is what they longed for, the coming of the Messiah who would bring hope not just to the Jewish people but to the nations. I love this verse in Matthew 12:15-twenty 1. Now I want you to be thinking a lot about Matthew because next year all we're gonna do is go verse by verse through the book of Matthew. And some of you, you're new to God, you're new to church, and you need to be raised up and you need to become a disciple next year as we study what Jesus taught. But in this passage in Matthew, Jesus is gonna teach us who he is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Take a look at this, man. This is profound. But Jesus knew what they were planning, and so He left that area, and many people followed Him. Look, check this out. He healed all the sick among them, but He warned them not to reveal who He was.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now let's stop there. You see, Jesus is not yet ready for the world to know who He is, but He's about ready to reveal something. Look at this. It says, this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 100 and 100 of years before. 100 of years before, Isaiah, in the darkness of his time, he prophesied about a coming light, the coming Messiah, the one whom the world waited for.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Isaiah prophesied concerning the Messiah. He says, look at my servant whom I have chosen. He is my beloved who pleases me. Let's take a look at this next verse. I will put my spirit upon him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You see, the Messiah is unique. The Messiah is anointed. I will put my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. What is the world crying out for? Justice.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Justice. Man, I mean, the world needs justice. He will not fight or shout or raise His voice in public. Jesus is nothing like me, amen? You know, I don't know why you're laughing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That hurts. Jesus was not a loud mouth. He just wasn't. That wasn't his way. He will not crush the weakest reed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, man. If that's you today, he's not here to crush you. He's here to save you. You see that doctor? His name is doctor Richter.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He let those rats drown. Jesus, He didn't come to let you drown because you're already drowning. He came to lift you out. He came to save you. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You see, that's what Advent is all about. It's not about snuffing out light. It's about light coming into the darkness. You ever thought about why we put lights on our houses at Christmas? It's saying even in the dark, there's something that shines.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Light has arrived. Finally, He will cause justice to be victorious. Man, I can't wait for that day. I can't wait for that day. And His name will be the hope of all the world.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And what is His name? His name is Jesus. Now some of you don't know this, but Jesus, in the Hebrew, comes to us from Yeshua, which means the Lord saves. The Lord saves. And what does the Lord save?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Not just rats in a bucket, but dirty rats who are covered in sin. And He saves us and He cleans us and He loves us. Man, I don't know what's going on in your life, but I wanna give you some hope today. Because of Jesus, there is hope even in the face of death. This week, I went to the City of Hope to to visit a dear friend.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, I have loved this gal since she was 18 years old. And as I was praying with her, I said, I don't know what I am to you. I'm kind of an older brother, a dad, and a pastor. And she looked me in the face, she said, You're family. And we were sitting there waiting for her husband to arrive because I got there a little bit early.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But we were sitting in the City of Hope, praying once again for a miracle. And I I just loved what she shared with me. She said, My hope is not in medicine. My hope is not in doctors. She said, My hope is firmly placed in Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And there was just a moment, right? We're sitting on her medical bed, amen? Where she became the pastor. You know, because sometimes as pastors, right, we don't know what to say. When we see people at their most painful moments, when we see that candle, that flicker of hope, we see it dimming.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, it's always amazing to me how God's people minister to ministers in those moments. But I want you to know even if you're facing death today, even if you got bad news, even if the word cancer is echoing through the halls of your home. 1st Thessalonians 4:13 says this, and now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died, so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. What makes Christians different is our hope. It's what drives us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's what drives us. It's what fulfills us and sustains us. And so many of us, even as Christians is, we're running low on hope because we are running low on Jesus. So even if you're grieving, you don't grieve like someone who has no hope. Death does not get the final say.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus gets the final say because He conquered even death. But let's be honest. The problem for many of us is not death. Amen? The problem is life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Life. Anybody ever had a day, you're like, yeah, death wouldn't be that bad. It wouldn't be that bad.
Bryan Wade:You know,
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I've had some moments. I'm like, Lord, you could take me. Like, right now would be good. Just a bolt of lightning put me out of my misery. You never had a day like that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It means either you're you're really young or you're really blessed. But that day is coming. And you're gonna be like, oh, pastor Matt was right. Why do I go to church? Because our vision is being real.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? But it's not always death that's in the forefront, it's life. How do I stay married? How do I deal with these kids? How do I deal with my roommate?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How am I gonna pay for college? How on earth am I gonna deal with my boss? How do I deal with my friends? How do I deal without any friends? Life is stressful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The sooner you figure that out, the better you'll be off. Because some of you are shocked. I didn't know this was going to be difficult. I'm sorry. Your parents failed you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They should've let you get out there and skin your knees early on. So many of you parents, you're trying to prevent your kids from ever hurting while all you're doing is you're preparing them for a life of hurt and they won't be ready. Life is full of disappointment. I mean, how's this generation doing when everybody got a ribbon? Are we doing good?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everybody won, everybody's a winner. Nope. Nope. Life isn't that way. You don't get a participation ribbon for life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You don't get pulled over by the CHP and they're just like, we're glad you're here. You got an award today for driving. No. It's not how it works. So because of Jesus because of Jesus, I can deal with the reality of life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The reality of life. Like, I got a shirt that says hope dealer. You ever wonder why people do drugs? Why are there drug dealers? I met a couple of them, you know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, I met more drug dealers at this event than I ever have in my whole life. Why are there drug dealers? Because people don't like life. Nobody is sitting at home saying, You know what? I love my family, I love my kids, my life is full of joy, and I am content.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's go do drugs. Nobody says that. People do drugs because they can't deal with the reality of life. Reality of life. I got a friend of mine that thinks Christianity is a joke and he says, religion is a crutch.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I said, yeah. And I have a broken body. That's why I go to church because I need Jesus. I need the good doctor to heal me every single week. So if you're struggling today, if you're not looking forward to the holidays, if the holidays aren't a great time, if life is overwhelming you, if you if you if you're just overwhelmed by finances and struggle and stress, if you're stress, if you're battling depression, listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's hope for you. Hebrews 10/23. Take a look at this verse. I love this. Let us hold fast.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, man. I was just talking with a guy this week who said, you know what my problem is, pastor Matt? I said, what? He said, I let go of things way too quickly. I mean, some of you believe that if it's hard, it's not God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? You know, that's why you've never done a push up. Like, oh, needed the Lord. He wasn't there, and I stopped. Sometimes holiness calls us to very hard things.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hebrews 10/23. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope. You see, some of you are like me. You forgot that you were a hope dealer. And your friends and your family are like, yes, please.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you're like, what? I mean, I I can't imagine that the woman's face. She's like, yes, please. I'm like, what? Wait.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You should be serving me. And you passed me by when you're giving out the free pretzels. I saw you. But this is what the world is doing to the church. Yes, please.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we forgot. We're hope dealers. We forgot. Hebrews 10/23, and let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Is anybody's spiritual gift wavering?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, well, I don't know. For He who promised is, what? Faithful. Why do you have hope? Because God never lies.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Never lies. Never a day in His life has He lied. Matter of fact, the Bible says it's impossible for God to lie. He can't do it. He can't do it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because of Jesus, listen to me. You need to know this. Hope is not wishful thinking, but active living. You wanna know why some of you, your marriage isn't gonna get better? Because you wish it would get better.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hope is not a wish. Hope is saying, I hope the luck gods bless me like a lottery ticket. Hope is taking claim to something you believe in. You see, when you have hope, you are saying this, I believe my marriage can get better. When you have hope, you say, I believe my finances can turn around.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When you have hope, you say, I believe that God can heal me of this cancer. It's not wishing. It's active living. And we need to know that. Hope is a powerful thing that we've forgotten.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You see, I don't just believe in Jesus. Listen to me. I'm trying to live like Jesus. And by the power of the Holy Spirit and by God's grace, listen to me, I'm trying to become like Jesus. And then I went to church last week, and they preached on anger, and I realized not doing so well.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what's so sad is I knew in advance what the sermon was gonna be. You would have thought I'd have been more prepared. Man. Man, God's so good, though. He's not giving up on me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, God says, Matt, I know you're still angry, but I know you can still grow. By God's grace, he can transform me, he can change me, and with Jesus, listen to me, he can change you. You're not stuck. Don't give up. Don't give in.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look, your doctors may have said you got x amount of days to live. Man, there's only one person that knows when your name is called and his name is Jesus. That's it. That's it. 1st Timothy 4:10.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's take a look at this verse. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle. If you have teenagers, you might want them to memorize this verse. I saw the funniest TikTok this week. It said, please pray for my son.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We asked him to take out the trash and he reminded that us that he just did it yesterday and he's tired. So can I get an amen, parents? Anybody been there? Woo. That's the the Internet is truly a great thing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. Sorry. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle. If you are raising kids, teach them that life is a struggle. And they will either struggle to do good or they will struggle because they did bad.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're gonna struggle either way. First Timothy 4:10. This is why we work hard and we continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the savior of all people. And our hope is in God, not in government, not in our health, not in our finances, not in the size of America's army. Our hope is in God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we need to remember this. But here's the trippy thing. So, right, we're celebrating Advent as a church and Advent, if you remember to the beginning of the sermon, means arrival. Arrival. We sit between 2 advents.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're celebrating at Christmas the advent of Jesus at His birth and we're waiting for the advent of His return. You see, there's more hope than just life over death. There's more hope than just for your life. There's hope in His return. And here's why this is important.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Just like He promised to Isaiah that He was coming, it took 800 years, Jesus told the disciples He was coming again. It's been 2000 years. I think we're a lot closer than people realize. First Peter 113, man, check this verse out. It's so good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what do I do? I just sit around, you know, waiting for Jesus' return? No. No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I prepare my minds. Prepare your minds for what? Action. The gospel is opposed to earning. You cannot earn your salvation, but the gospel encourages effort.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's right. Effort. So prepare your minds for action and exercise self control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when? When you win the lottery?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. When you're not sick anymore? No. When your kids and your marriage and everything is perfect? No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. Man, that's hope. Here's the good news of Christmas. Christmas is just the down payment. There's something better coming from Heaven for you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So think about that, as great as Christmas is, it's just the opening gift. It's just the first gift. There's more to come. Titus 2:13, man. So important this verse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What do we do? We're waiting for our blessed do you see the word? Hope. We're waiting for our blessed hope. Now is waiting easy?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Does anybody like waiting? Like, I have an internal clock of how much is an appropriate time for me to wait. And I'm so I am so like Jesus. You guys would be so proud of me. It's literally like you'd get confused between me and Jesus when no, seriously, when I feel like I'm still waiting an appropriate amount of time.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But the second we cross the threshold of what I believe is appropriate, I'm no longer like Jesus, amen? You know? Like my wife and I, if any guys here are married, I I don't know what it is but guys, when we arrive somewhere, we're ready. Amen? Like we get out of the car, we're at our destination, let's tackle this mall and get this stuff done.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When you have a wife, that's the time you start looking for everything that you could have been looking for the entire drive. And so I'll I'll literally I'll just start walking. And I I assume, like, we we we both said we're going here. We're we've arrived here. We're now here, and we're now gonna walk into the place that we've come to conquer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I'll walk all the way up the sidewalk, turn around, she's still in the car, and I see the top of her head. And I I I tell myself this every time, like, you know, it's okay. This is who she is. This is who I married. She puts up with my quirks.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna put with her quirks. And I'm like, I'm just like Jesus. I'm gonna minister to her. I'm gonna pray for her. And I'm gonna just welcome her and celebrate the beautiful wife that God has given me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then all of a sudden, that timer goes off. It's been too long, and I'm like, what is your problem, woman? This is a personal offense to my sense of timing, and then there's no shopping. Right? It's just, okay, now it's counseling time.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Titus 2:13. What are we waiting for? We're waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Christ Jesus. This is actually one of the most important verses in the bible that tell us that Jesus is not just the savior, but He's also God. But here's the thing, you're never waiting until it feels too long.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? It's not it's not waiting until the dinger goes ding. Now it's waiting. So I wanna encourage you. In this holiday season be patient with people who take your parking spaces and you have your sandals church sticker on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, and you're gonna get out and give them a piece of your mind. Why don't you give them a piece of Jesus instead of a piece of your mind? I mean, really? It cracks me up. I go to the gym and people are waiting for a parking space up close to the gym.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm like, you're at the gym. The point is exercise. Park far away and walk. Why do people do that? But here's the here's the truth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:As a Christian, I must be ready to share the reason for my hope. Do you know why the world acts hopeless? They are hopeless. They are. And what we wanna do as Christians is we wanna share that hope.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And this is not just a point in my sermon. Listen to me. This is a point in scripture. In 1st Peter 315, look at this verse. It says, instead, you must worship Christ as the Lord of your life, and if someone asks about your political opinion, then share it with them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. That's not what it says. Instead, you must worship Christ, and if someone offends your morality online, you must respond. I'm sorry. That was your translation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's let's let's look let's look at the Bible translation. Instead, you must worship Christ as the Lord of your life, and if someone asks about your hope. Man, some of you at work are the most hopeless person in your office. And if someone asks you about your hope, as a believer, always, always be ready to what? Explain it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The next time somebody asks you why do you go to church, just say this, it gives me hope. It It gives me hope. You don't have to say, because you're gonna die and go to hell if you don't have Jesus in your heart. Now would you like to come to our Christmas service so you don't feel the flames? Hope dealer, not hell dealer, hope dealer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When's the last time you dealt some hope? I don't know how you and your husband do it. We have hope. I don't know how you deal with your kids. We have hope.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know how you and your husband are affording groceries. We have hope. You see, that's a testimony. God has taught me. What has he taught you?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was a rat in a bucket, and I thought I was done, and he saved me. And then he saved me. He saved my marriage. He saved my kids. He saved my mind.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He saved my soul. I have hope. God has been there with me before, and so I'm different. You see, the rats who were saved behave differently than the rats who had never been saved. And some of you guys are still living like a dirty rat that's been pulled out of the sewer and you forgot where you've been saved from.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So listen to that. We have to maintain our testimony, and our testimony is hope. Hope. We gotta do this. So how do we do this as a church?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We must continue working together as a church family. Here's the good news. You don't have to be a hope dealer by yourself. We got a bunch of gang members in here. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We are loaded up and ready to go. I'm telling you, man, you don't know how we roll. Sandals Church, we got a campus in San Bernardino. What up? I was at Azusa last week.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's some hardcore people there. I saw you. Moval, some of your greeters, I don't know if they're gonna kill me or love me. I don't know. Sandals Church, we roll thick.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? You know what I'm saying? We got a we got a community. Let me tell you some of the amazing things we've done as a community. Let me tell you how impactful Sandals has been this year as a hope dealer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was at our our board meeting, our last board meeting of the year this year, and I was just I was just took back. I literally during our board meeting, I stopped and I took a picture of some of the amazing things that God has done through us this year, and I just wanna share some of the highlights for our last board meeting. Sandals Church, we've sent 13 mission trips around the world. How many of you guys ever been to Lake Perris? Anybody been to Lake Perris?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. 3 of you. Okay. And if you're watching online, just pretend that it's amazing. But I was at Lake Perris and I met a young woman, single mom in our church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She came up to me and she said I go to your church and she said I'm so excited. I said why is that? She said I'm gonna go on a mission trip. I'm talking with somebody, come on people, at Lake Perris about going on a mission trip. Do you know that we sent people to the real Perris this year?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We didn't send people to Lake Perris. That didn't take a lot of money. We sent people to Perris to minister to people that have come to Christ, come to faith, and are living in Paris as immigrants. Sandals Church was there, starting a church. We got kicked out of a restaurant.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It was awesome. The stories are incredible. Do you know this year at Sandals Church, we were able to baptize 1148 people. Amen? Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's 2 years in a row of over a 1000 people. Man, this next one touched my heart. I wanna I wanna thank our DMOC team and everybody who sends this out on the Internet every week. I appreciate that. You know, we were able to reach 40,000 people a week with our sermons.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:40,000 people. My first year in ministry, the town that I served in didn't have 40,000 people in it. I'm not kidding you. And I would tell you the name of it, but it wouldn't help you identify it. Sandals Church is not just a big church now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're a small city. Amen? Like, God is moving. Now this next one, for everybody who listens to the Debrief podcast, we've reached 4,400,000 people with the podcast. Isn't that incredible?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now, for all of you business owners, you know this. You know that California is the hardest state in the world to do business in. Okay? California's allergic to business. We're like, We don't wanna make money.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We want no one to do well. That's our our golden vision now. But in California, the most difficult state to function as a business, Sandals Church was able to raise funds to support, to be 1 church in 15 locations. Can you believe that? Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Come on. When I think about our budget every year, some of you aren't old enough to remember papier mache. But when I was a kid, we would make papier mache. It's what you do is you blow up a balloon, and then you you dip like newspaper and glue, and then you put each piece around it, and then you let it dry, and you pop it, and it's still there. And it's like magic when you're 5.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're like, woah. But that's how our budget is every single year. I'm like, how, Lord, how do we do this? If I look at the budget, I lose hope. When I look at Jesus, I have hope.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And every single year, we do this. We do it. And by the way, everyone doesn't know this in January. Every year, January 1, we start at 0. We zero every year, and we fundraise all year long.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I wanna thank everybody in our church who gives financially. And man, I just appreciate you, and I love you, and you have no idea. You think, oh, my little gift doesn't matter. Every gift matters. And I gotta tell you, I I found out something new.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't even know our church was doing this. It's always amazing. Somebody came up to me like, Pastor Matt, your church built me a ramp, and I'm I'm in a wheelchair. And I was like, we did that? I was like, yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was like, great. I didn't even know. Nobody even asked me. You know? Can we bless this guy?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He doesn't have legs. You know, they didn't even ask me anymore. You know what? People in our church just do it. They just do it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It was great. But I found out this week that members of our church, we've been doing this seminar or or not seminar, but this thing where you can you can, you can get a trust for your family so that when you die, they don't have to go through probate. And members of our church are setting aside part of their estate when they die it goes to Sandals, and we've raised over $2,000,000 through that this year. Can we just give those people a hand? That's incredible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Tammy and I are gonna do that because here's the thing, when I'm in heaven, I want my money still working for heaven on earth. That's what I want. And if you're interested in that, talk to your campus pastor or call the church office and we can help you do that. But here's why I'm so excited for that, because people that are putting sandals in their in their wheels are gonna help us pay off our debt in the next 10 years. Isn't that incredible?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We'll be debt free.
Bryan Wade:Praise god.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? So if you're in your twenties, listen to me. Not bad for a church that's 27. Come on. That sounds old in church until you're a kid.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're like, yeah, I'm 27. You're like, I don't even own a building yet. I know. It's amazing what God has done at San Luis Church. So thank you to everybody who gives.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Last point, as individuals, we must share Jesus with those in our lives. That's what we need to do. And so many of you, you want your friend or your family member to meet pastor Matt or to meet another pastor here and somehow we'll magically make them a Christian. Do you know what they need? They need you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They trust you. They know you. They love you. And when they hear about the hope of Jesus in your life, they will reconsidering having the hope of Jesus in their life. So what I want us to do this Christmas is let's all be hope dealers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's all share this. Let's all go out. Let's invite people to church. Let's invite people to our Christmas Eve services. Why?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because people will come at Christmas. This is like the easiest time. It's like fishing in a barrel. K? They're ready.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They wanna come. They wanna enjoy, and they wanna hear the life giving, hopeful message of Jesus. That's what Christmas is all about. So in Matthew, Jesus said, shh, shh, don't tell. But he's told us to tell everyone, to tell everyone and invite everyone, and to share the hope that we have in Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? Amen. Amen. I love you guys so much. Let's pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Heavenly father, I just love this church so much. I just cannot believe the generous people in this church who give so faithfully every week. For those amazing people who are in our church who've who've put the church in their will, it blows my mind and encourages me. And God, it gives me hope for the future of the church in California. It gives me hope to know that even after I'm gone and in heaven, the dollars of this church will still be working to reach people with the hope of Jesus for the next generation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord, continue to bless our church and help us this week to be hope dealers in Jesus'
Morgan Teruel:name. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from the series, we have a YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.