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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
Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hi, guys, and welcome to Sandals Church. Man, I'm so glad you're here, and I'm super excited today because today, we're actually gonna get to the first rule. Right? Week 3, we're on the first rule. That's how Sandals rolls.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're a little slow, but we're gonna look at the first commandment today. So many people dismiss the commandments. We're not under law. We're under love. But what I want you to understand is these commandments were never to put you under the law, but to set you free so that you can experience life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And these things are are guard guide rails to help you kind of direct your family if you're single, give you purpose. If you're young, give you direction. And we need these rules so that God can ultimately bless our lives. And so today, the first rule is this, only God can set you free. Only God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God is the only one who can set you free. There are so many things on the Internet, Instagram, there are speakers, TED Talks, books, self help guides, all this stuff to help you ultimately escape, guess what, yourself. But God is the only one who can truly set you free. And what I wanna do today is I wanna contrast 2 men, pharaoh, who got it wrong, and Moses, who got it right. And I just want you to look at these two lives and and make a decision today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Am I gonna be like Moses and humbly follow God? Or am I gonna be like pharaoh and reject God? Because the outcome is literally a picture of what your life could be or will be, depending on who you choose to be, Moses or Pharoah. So we're gonna start today in Exodus chapter 5 verse 1, and then we're gonna work our our our way back. Exodus chapter 5 verse 1 and 2.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharoah. So God had called them to challenge pharaoh, and they did this by faith. This is an incredibly scary moment, and they told him, this is what the Lord says, the God of Israel says. Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness. Listen to pharaoh's reply.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I love it. Is that so? Is that so, retorted? Like, you can feel the disgust, you can feel the arrogance, retorted pharaoh. And listen to this statement.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is the most tragic statement an individual can make in their life. And who is this Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? He says, I don't know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. This is really the battle line in our culture.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Is there a God, and if there is, will you follow him? And so many people say, no, I don't need that. And they just, in one fatal swoop, blame every human sin that's ever happened on religion, completely ignoring the fact that non religious societies like Hitler, like communism, that ultimately have completely rejected God were still evil. You see, the problem isn't religion. The problem is our hearts.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Our hearts are the problem. So here's why you need God. God is the only one that can set you free. I don't know what you're battling with. I don't know what you're struggling with.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know what you're wrestling with. But here's the thing I want you to understand. If you could have defeated it, whatever it is, you would have won by now. So many of us, we just keep fighting the same battle. We keep wrestling the same struggle.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We keep facing the same issue. And let me say this. If you could have won, you would have won already. And what life teaches us over and over and over again is we need God. God is the only one who can set you free from your addiction.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God is the only one who can set you free from your insecurities. God is the only one that can set you free from your depression. God is the only one that can set you free from whatever it is that you're battling with today. But here's the thing. God only blesses those who are humble and admit their need for him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we're gonna look at the first commandment, and some of you have missed the beauty of this first commandment. We run around saying, you just gotta believe in god, and we gotta attack these 10 commandments up in our court houses, you know, in our schools, and we fail to realize that the first commandment is a covenant. It's an agreement that people freely choose to follow. Exodus chapter 20 verse 2 through 3. This is the first commandment.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I am the Lord your God. Most of you got that. Who what? Who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. And therefore, here's the commandment, you must not have any other gods but me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So many of us as Christians, we miss the condition of the arrangement. The condition is I've been set free, and so therefore, I'm going to worship. And Christianity has never been more evil when we have enslaved people and put them in bondage to a God they do not know and have not been set free from. That's where the church has failed. We fail to recognize that God wants to enter into a free covenantal relationship with his people, just like he is willing to enter into a free covenantal relationship with you if you invite him in.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you reject him, you can be pharaoh. You can freely choose to go your own way, stand on your own 2 feet, build your life upon your gifting and your strength, and get as far as you can go. Or you can humble yourselves, and you can pray, and you can say, you know what, God? I need to be set free. And here's why you need god to set you free.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Number 2, without god, you will place yourself in bondage. Let me just ask you this question. Who's gonna set you free from you? How many have ever done something where you're just, like, you just have a tantrum? You go on a rant, and you're like, really?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Again? Again, I did this again? You you you saw the disaster coming. You coulda got off on 17 exits, but, no, you drove straight into that disaster where you know you you go again and again and again. I mean, think about it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you, you struggle with a porn addiction. You know every time you look at your phone, you know every time you you flip the lid of your computer open that you're stepping into a danger zone. You know it, and you say this time will be different, but it never is. Why is that? Because you're your own god, and you need to be set free by something greater than you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You ever wonder why in your marriage, you have the same fight over and over and over again? You know what that is? You're married to the same person. Right? That's why it is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. And then you're like, well, I'll get divorced. Yeah. But then you still take the same person into your next marriage. You.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you fail to realize that part of what needed to be set free in your marriage was yourself. And until you learn that, you'll never change. So god sets the people of Israel free. Right? They're free.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're out of Egypt. They're no longer slaves. Totally free. Victorious. God throws down thunder, lightning, curses.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's amazing. Even Hollywood's like, dang. Steven Spielberg is like, woah. It's incredible. They get out into the wilderness, and guess what they miss?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Slavery. Then when the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites, they began to crave good things with Egypt, and the people of Israel also began to complain. Some of you didn't know this. It's not just Jews who flee Egypt. There are some Egyptians that woke up too.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? You know what? I think Pharoah's got the wrong god. Right? They're a little smart.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Cows are dying. Right? Flies are all over the place. Frogs are invading. I mean, it's crazy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And all of a sudden, they get out there and they get freed, and guess what happens? They miss what they were formerly slaves to. Oh, they said. If we could just have some meat. We remember the fish we used to eat, listen, for free in Egypt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, ain't that great? You know, see, when you're a slave, everything's free. You know why that is? You got no money. You eat what's given to you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We miss the melons, the onions. Oh, yeah. The onions. Who doesn't miss an onion? I'm so sick and tired of this manna.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? They're being fed from heaven. Yeah. That's boring. And guess what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They wanna go back. And this is what happens to us. Right? We get sober for a month, and we miss the buzz. We forget the burden, don't we?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We forget the burden, but we remember the buzz, and we go back. Man, I can't tell you how many times I've seen somebody mess up a month sobriety, a year sobriety. I've seen people lose their sobriety after 10 years. You know why? They forgot what it was like to be a slave, and they remember the taste of the melon.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They remember the onions. Right? You see, oftentimes, the further we get from sin, the more we forget its consequence. This is why Proverbs 2611 says this, as a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness. We are all fools somewhere.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Somewhere. Let me just ask you, what's that big pile of vomit you just keep running to? Just lapping it up like a dog. Lapping it up. And god's like, I haven't called you to be a dog.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I've called you to be a son. I've called you to be a daughter. I've called you to set you free. You see, here's why the first commandment is so important. We all need to be set free.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And this is the most important commandment. If you get this one thing right, your whole trajectory is going to be amazing. But if you get this one thing wrong, your whole life is gonna be a disaster. Look. America got a lot of things wrong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They got one thing right. We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal by god and endowed with this this inherent ability to be free. They got that one thing right. They got thousands of things wrong, but they got that one thing right. And look at the blessings upon America.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The rest of the world just scratches their head looking at us. God put it right there in stone for the rest of the world to see. Guys, get this right. You're never gonna be perfect, but get this right and you will be blessed. But here's the thing, number 3.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Without God, you could lose everything in your life that really matters. You could lose everything. Jesus said this. What does a man gain if he inherits the whole world but loses his soul? You see, one of the things that God challenges us to do is to look at our priorities.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What am I willing to risk? What what is the risk reward ratio? In Exodus chapter 9, pharaoh gets it wrong. He gets it dead wrong. So God says, go back to pharaoh, the lord commanded Moses.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Go back to him and tell him, this is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says. He says, let my people go so they can worship me. If you continue to hold them and refuse to let them go, listen to what God says. The hand of the Lord will strike. You see, god warned pharaoh, and god's warning you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You have 2 options, blessing or curses. That's the way the world works. You ever you ever calculated what pharaoh lost? Pharaoh was the richest man on earth. He died with nothing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He lost all of his wealth. I mean, think about that. In an instant, he went from Jeff Bezos to you. Amen? Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Bam. He lost everything. He lost everything. You know he lost all his power? He was the most powerful man on earth, but that is nothing compared to the power of God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He lost it all. He had the world's greatest army, the world's greatest technology. He had the world's greatest soldiers. He was the most powerful man on earth. He was revered as a god.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He lost it all. But you know he also lost his mind. Some of you missed this process. The more he rejects god, the more he loses his mind, the more out of touch with reality he becomes. Look.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:His own citizens are like, oh, we're going with we're going with Moses, but not pharaoh. He gets more entrenched and more hardened and more lost. He loses his wealth. He loses his power. He loses his mind.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He loses his son. Think about that. Pharaoh lost his own son. He was warned, and then, ultimately, guess what happened? Pharaoh lost his life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He lost his life. Exodus 713, yet pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said. Some of you have missed this. You've been in Sunday school your whole life, and you've been taught that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. He did after pharaoh chose to harden his own heart.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Exodus 713, the NASB is a literal translation. It is word for word from the Hebrew to English. Sometimes it's a little difficult to read in English, but it's word for word. Listen to this out of the NASB. Then the lord said to Moses, pharaoh's heart is stubborn, and he refuses to let the people go.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It is stubborn. Now in our English translations, we translate this word stubborn, stubborn. It's chazak. Excuse me. Chazak.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, you gotta chazak. But you know what it means? It doesn't mean stubborn. You know what it means? Strong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I know that didn't that didn't provide any clarity. Yeah. You're like yeah. Sorry. I was trying to paint a word picture, But chazak means strong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's what it says in 713. Pharoah had a strong heart. Anybody raising a strong willed child? Now listen to me. Their eternal destiny is not settled, but they do have a very real struggle.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You see, what made pharaoh great also made him weak. The next time in verse 714, the word changes from chazak to kaved. Kaved does not mean stubborn either. You know what it means? Heavy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:His heart was heavy. And so what did the lord do? He began to make his heart stronger in the wrong way, and he began to make his heart heavier in the wrong way. And time and time again, pharaoh encounters the living God, and his heart is hardened and hardened and hardened. But it did not start off being hardened by God, it was hardened because of his choice.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And that's why Jesus said, are your hearts hardened? You know who he said that to? His disciples, his own disciples. The author of Hebrews says this, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Do not harden your hearts.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you have a hard heart today? Are you stubborn? Are you one of those people, I've gotta do it my own way? There's gonna be a lot of people in hell doing it their own way, refusing to surrender to the one true God. I was on a TV show, last year in Texas and it was a Christian TV show, so don't think I have a big head.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Nobody is watching. But I I was being interviewed, and right in the and right in the middle of the interview, like, we're having a conversation. It's it's live TV. And right in the middle of this invitation, the woman says, we need to give an invitation. We need to give an invitation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, I wasn't there. And she stopped, and she just gave an invitation for people to receive Christ. And I was so offended by that because I thought I was more important than someone's soul. And it was so amazing, when I got back to California, the show was in Texas. I got back to California.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I got an email from one of the persons who gave their life to Christ who was watching the show. And and I realized, you know, in in Christianity, like, the invitation always comes at the end. But as I was writing this message, I thought, why not put it right in the middle? Because some of you right now might be hearing God's voice, and I might mess it up by the end. Like, right now you're hearing God's voice, but I just keep talking and it becomes my voice.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My apologies. But what if right now God's calling you? And and right now is your moment. Right now is your decision. And God's saying, are you gonna be Pharoah or are you gonna be Moses?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Are you gonna soften your heart and follow me? Or are you gonna harden your heart? And here's the thing you need to understand. Hard the hardening of the heart just gets worse. And here's the thing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Many of us have been taught that god always knocks and god always calls. Here's the thing. The harder your heart gets, you can't hear the knock, and you can't hear the call no matter what. At the end of pharaoh's life, everybody's saying, man, we gotta let these people go. Please let these people go, and he won't do it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No matter what happens, no matter what he sees, his heart is hardened. And God just turns up the heat and continues to harden his heart. Because here's the thing you need to understand, if you choose sin over God, God will surrender you to sin. But here's the beauty. So without god, your life's a mess.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Without god, you could lose everything that matters. But with god, you can unlock your potential. Pharoah had it all. Best education, best schooling, best wisdom, best magicians. He had the best of absolutely everything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He lived an incredible spoiled life. He wasn't born with a silver spoon. He had a gold spoon and a fork and a knife. Amen? He had it all.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Moses had nothing. He had nothing. He was poor. He was a murderer. He was no longer received by his own people, the Hebrews, and he was hunted and wanted for the death penalty by the Egyptians.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so he ran into the out into the desert. But god called him, but Moses protested to god. He said, who am I to appear before pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? You know what the answer is?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Without God? No one. No one. You see, by himself, Moses was a man of excuses. Does that sound familiar?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Just like you. Just like me. Do you wanna know why we know God's name as I am? Because Moses said, I I don't know enough about God. I didn't grow up in church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't go to Sunday school. I haven't been to seminary. He said, I I can't tell people about you. I don't know enough about the Bible. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Same reasons you give, for not serving, for not sharing. I don't know enough. I'm not a scholar. Moses talks to sheep for a living. And out of Moses's fear of his theological incompetence, we all learn the name of God, the great I am.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But Moses is not only afraid of his lack of knowledge, he's afraid of rejection. You see, the fear of rejection at friends and family, you know what he says to God? They're not gonna listen to me. They're not gonna listen to me. Nobody's gonna listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? It's the same thing you say. Well, I'd love to stand up for god at work, but, you know, who am I? The only one who can stand up for god. That's who you are.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's right. That's who you are. The only one who will speak. And so, guys, I just, I mean, I I just believe god's called us to live a different life. I just I just believe that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, what what does it come to? What what does our world come to? As as American Christians, we've completely lost our ability to speak for God. Now if if you're LGBTQ, I love you. I'm glad you're in this church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But god has called us to a different form of sexuality. It's interesting to me that in the United States, professional hockey league, it took a Russian remember the Russians? It took a Russian to say, hey. I'm I'm not gonna play on the gay pride night. I'm not gonna wear the rainbow flag jersey.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know what his answer was? He said, because it does not align with my belief and my faith in god. Took a Russian. Remember the bad guys? Took a Russian who said, this this doesn't align with my faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm not gonna do it regardless of the consequences. And here's what he said. He said, I believe in diversity, and that includes me. Right? And so he spoke up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you know what? He took his pay cut. He didn't play. He wasn't a part of it. And so many of you, you're like, somebody should stand up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God's like, yeah. I wonder who? You. Now don't be a jerk. God has enough of those.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? Don't be a jerk. Be like Jesus. And all that hockey player said is, I'm not gonna participate. He wasn't he wasn't looking for a mic, a microphone was shoved in his face.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He was looking to follow God. Next, I'm not a good speaker. Oh, I can't talk, I can't make a difference. Isn't that what we all do? Well, God hasn't called me to preach.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, I wish I could say that, but you know. But that's what everybody says. Well, it's not like I'm a preacher. Moses wasn't a preacher, but he was a leader. You know what he said to the lord?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But Moses said to the lord, oh my lord, I am not eloquent. Now if you grew up in Sunday school class, you've been taught that what it says in Hebrew here is thick of tongue. And so here's the problem. What we've said for 100 of years is that Moses had a a stuttering, Moses had a problem. And literally, we don't know what it means because it literally says thick of tongue.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But here's what I want you to know that we now know about Egyptian society 1000 of years ago. In order to be a magician, in order to be a wizard, you had to be able to speak magic. Here's what Moses is saying. He said, I can't talk like those wizards. I I can't speak listen to this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I can't speak the magic words. And God says, don't worry. I'll be with you. And Moses protests again. And God's like, okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I might kill you, but you know what he says? He says, I'll I'll let your your brother speak for you. Aaron will speak. Let me just say this. Most of you today, your biggest fear is worried about missing out on everything but your god given potential.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When you get on Instagram, you're like, oh my gosh. I missed out on that party. I missed out on the invitation. You know what's gonna happen on judgment day? You're you're gonna just see the list of of all the things that god blessed you with that you missed out on because you just didn't try.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You shouldn't try. You see, the first commandment helps us to make sure that we don't miss out on God's potential. Because when God's number 1, guess what you're gonna do? You're not gonna make excuses. You're going to voluntarily offer to serve.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'll do it. All the great prophets of God say these words, here I am, lord. Send me. I used to hear this over and over again. God does not call the equipped, he equips the called.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And that's the thing is, this job, my job as your pastor is is so much more complicated and convoluted than than I am qualified for. There are things that happen here that I don't understand. I mean, our our our church is organized. They have, like, letters for things, and I'm always like, okay. What is that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's how organized things are. They're like, you just preach. You know? And I'm like, okay. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right. Got that. But here's the thing is, you don't have to do everything. You just have to be obedient to do the one thing God's called you to do. You see, with God, Moses voluntarily gets in a 10 round cage match with the most powerful man on earth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is the same guy that ran from some gossip. Right? Aren't you the one that killed that guy? And he ran. God took that guy, and he got in a cage match with the most powerful man on the planet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And what does God do in the life of Moses when he surrenders? Miracle after miracle after miracle. The world had never seen anything like this. He leads his people out of Egypt with others. Moses doesn't just deliver Hebrews from slavery, He delivers Egyptians from Egypt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He delivers all people. You see, it isn't just slaves who need to be delivered. It's even the wealthy. And we forget this. We forget this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And not only that, but they get filthy rich on the way out. Any anybody wanna follow God now? Like, yeah. Yeah. Give me the invitation now, pastor.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Give me I'll surrender. I wanna be rich for Jesus. Here's what the Bible says. They pillaged the Egyptians on the way out. They didn't rob them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The Egyptians voluntarily gave them money on the way out. They paid them to leave. Man, that is the beauty of God. That's the power of Exodus. Listen to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We all need to be delivered, all of us. Couple years ago, Tammy and I had the opportunity to, go to Washington DC, and we went to the Bible Museum. And I and I love the Bible Museum. It's fantastic. The thing that touched me more than anything was they have one of the original copies of what's called the Slave Bible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you have never heard of what the Slave Bible was, but it's an actual translation of the Bible written for black American slaves. Guess which book is not in the slave bible? Exodus. There's no exodus. That's a tragedy and a sin against slaves.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But you know what else it was? It's a tragedy and sin against slave owners who forgot the first commandment that we worship a god who delivers us from slavery. Some of you, you have Exodus in your bible, but it's not in your heart. It's not in your heart. And, practically, you believe you I mean, theologically, you believe you're Moses, but, practically, you're pharaoh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're a Christian on Sundays and an atheist every other day, and you've not been delivered from yourself. Think about all the mistakes that you wouldn't have made if you just had god as number 1. Think about it. Go back to junior high. Instead of making every other junior high person god, what if you had just let god be god?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Anybody been different? Oh my gosh. Can you imagine if you were set free from those other junior high girls? Amen? Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Little devils running around everywhere. You're free. Imagine in high school, if your goals, instead of being just academically proficient or excellent or or getting into sports or or making a name for yourself or getting into a good college, what if God would have been number 1? How different would your life have been? What about when you started dating?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What if instead of, oh my gosh, he's so cute, what if instead of looking for attraction as number 1, you had god number 1? How different would your dating life have been? Think about your finances. Is anybody bankrupt because they're following god? You know, god's not in the mall with you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do it. Do it. That's not god. Listen to me. Nobody goes bankrupt by listening to God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They pillage the Egyptians when they listen to God. That's what happens. People don't go bankrupt because they follow the biblical God. They go bankrupt because they think themselves a god, and they make mistakes. Just just think about your life if you just went back and you just had this one rule in place.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Think about how different your life would be. The tragedy is what? We can't go back. But with god, you can rewrite the end of your story. Look.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Nobody gets to go back to the beginning. Nobody. You can play woulda, coulda, shoulda for the rest of your life, or you can just submit to Jesus to change the ending. Look. In one way or another, we all have horrible beginnings and horrible chapters in our lives.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Life is hard. Life is difficult. Moses had a hard life. Moses had a difficult life. But Moses' life and the people of Israel's life was always worse when they ran from God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And it was always better, listen to me, when they ran to God and they listened to God. What if right now, right here, we just rewrote the end of your story? Think about it. Right now, there's an angel in heaven. I don't know if they have a typewriter.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know what it is that they're putting your story down, but right now, the your angel in heaven that's writing your story is looking at you wondering how this will end. And it can change. Are you pharaoh, or are you Moses? Who are you? It's why Jesus Christ, whenever he calls a disciple, what does he say?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says, come and follow me. And so what happens to fishermen? They drop their nets, and they follow jeez their story changes. They're no longer looking for fish. They're fishing for men.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It changed. You see, we worship a god who changes the end of our story. The beginning is the same. It's a mess. There are mistakes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There are wounds. There are addictions. There are things that we wish we wish we could go back and change. One of my big regrets is is how I dated my wife in college. I was not godly.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was not a leader. I was not humble, and I sowed all these seeds of sin that really messed us up relationally for years. Hurt us, wounded us, caused insecurity, caused her to question my integrity. And I just I would just beat myself up. God, why was I so stupid?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why was I so foolish? And I spent all my time focused on the past until one day I realized I can do nothing about that, but, god, I want you to change the end of our story. I can't go back and love her the way I should have when she was a teenager, when she was in her early twenties, but I can start loving her today the way you love me, god. And I can change The end. And what changed my life, and some of you have heard this story, I did a funeral for a guy, 98 years old, buried his 98 year old wife.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When we lowered her body into the ground on the casket, this 98 year old man threw his body over his wife. I love you. We had to pull a 98 year old guy. That is not easy, to pull a 98 year old guy who's voluntarily fallen on a casket that's being lowered. But we got him out.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I walked him to his car and he looked at me, he said, God, I'm gonna miss making love to that woman. I was like, well, okay. But listen to me. Here's what he taught me. His love for her at 98 was as intense as his love for her as 18 when they married.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He was married to her more years than many people live. And driving home that day, I realized that's how I wanted in my life. That's probably not the ending Tammy's praying for. Amen? But, you know, But, you know, just stay with me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Passionate passionate love. Passionate love and desire for each other. And in that moment, I realized I can't change the beginning but I can change my end. And some of you, you're beating yourself up right now because you didn't raise your kids the way you should have. You didn't love your spouse the way you should have.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You haven't managed your money the way you should have. You've never tithed in your life. We can't go back, but we can go forward, and we can make a change. And you can put god number 1. Why?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because he is the god who delivers you from bondage. So let's take a look at how Moses' life ends differently. Remember, it began with him being abandoned in the Nile. Moses was supposed to be killed, and yet Moses lived a long life. So Moses this is Deuteronomy chapter 34.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is the end of his life. This is where he dies. Remember the books of the bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the final book in the Torah. Moses died in the land of Moab just as the lord said.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you have missed this. And the lord buried him. I I just I want you to hear that. No human being buried Moses. God did.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's why nobody knows where he's buried, Because God dug the hole. Moses was a 120 years old. Do you see this week a woman died, the oldest woman on earth, 118. Let me just translate that for you. When she was a 100, she had 18 more years to go.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, when I turn a 100, let me go. Let me go. Amen? I mean, who who wants to do that? 118 years old.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But here's the thing you need to know about Moses. He outlived her. Moses was a 120. Think about it. No modern science, no modern diet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's out in the desert. But when he died, his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever. I mean, just think about that. One of the things I love to watch on Instagram is the 80 year old 100 yard sprints. Man, you got just just it's it's hilarious.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, they're they're just but they're going they're like and some of them, god bless them, they don't make it. They just you know, they don't die, but, like you know? I mean, when you're 80, you have a blowout, you know, on yard 40. You know? But Moses Moses is running with Usain Bolt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's a 120 years old. And this is why if you're Jewish at your birthday, they say. You know what it means? To 120. To 120.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's how you bless somebody in Hebrew. May you live like Moses. May you live strong. May your eyes be clear. May you live like him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why? Listen to the next verse. Because there has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. Remember where he started. Remember where he started, and remember where he ended, whom the lord knew face to face.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The lord sent him to perform all the miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt against pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, listen to this, with mighty power. Moses performed terrifying acts in the sight of all Israel. That's the end of his story. What's the beginning? I don't know you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I can't speak for you, and no one will believe me. What's his end? He's the most powerful man who ever lived. The most powerful man who ever lived. I want you to look at your life and go back, and I want you to just admit to yourself, it can be way better.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God can rewrite your story. No matter how hard your heart has been broken, no matter what's happened to you, no matter what you've done or what's done to you, I want you to look forward and say, okay, god. I wanna look forward to what they're gonna say about me at my funeral. Moses' pallbearer was god himself. I want you to know, everybody listening, you all have a gifting.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God will not change that. What does change is when you have a calling and you answer it, and you answer that call, you will have an anointing. Listen to me. Without god, you don't have an anointing. You're pharaoh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Pharaoh was smart. Pharaoh was strong, but pharaoh did not have god, and so he lost. What you need today is you need someone who knows both the beginning of your story and the end. Revelation 2213 tells us his name. He says, I am the alpha and the omega.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:In Greek, that is the first letter and the last letter. Jesus is telling you, I am the beginning and the end. That's why Jesus can change the end of your story no matter how it began. At Sandals Church, we have a famous verse, John 832. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's why our vision is to be real. But if you go ahead 4 more verses, Jesus says this, and I want you to listen to these words. Whomever the son sets free is free indeed. Why? Because Jesus is God's one and only son, and he can set you free from physical slavery, mental slavery, emotional slavery, and spiritual slavery.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He is the god who can set you free. And one of the things I believe god wants to do right now is set some of you free from your past. And he wants to instill in your heart a very, very different future. If you just get this number one rule right, god is the only god who can set you free from bondage. So let's bow our heads, let's close our eyes, and let's just pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you need to be set free from bondage? Are you struggling? Are you battling? Are you tired? My favorite verse, man, Matthew 1028, all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, come to me he says and I will give you rest for your souls.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus is inviting you. This is your opportunity, if you hear God's call, all I want you to do is just raise your hand and say, God, I'm ready to surrender my life to Jesus, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. God, I want you to forgive my beginning and my middle, I want you to forgive my ending and change my ending. I'm ready right now to no longer be God, to no longer question God, I'm ready to surrender to God right here, right now. Jesus, I'm gonna invite you to be the Lord of my life, and I'm gonna invite you to direct my life, And I'm gonna invite you to change my ending.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Hi. Thank you so much for watching. If this material is helping you to further your authentic relationship with Jesus Christ, I wanna encourage you to move from being someone who watches content to someone who participates and helps give towards this content.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I want you to know that no amount is too small. Jesus Christ himself makes the biggest deal out of the smallest gift. And so whether that's $1 or $5 or $10, every dollar helps us in our mission to reaching the world with this vision of authenticity. So if God is prompting you, if the Holy Spirit is moving you towards generosity of The Sandals Church, I wanna encourage you to go to donate.sc, And here's all we ask, give whatever God asks you to give, and we will just pray over that and ask God to bless that so that we can reach more people like you with this life changing message.