Zac Applegate: Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is Zach, and I'm part of the team here at Sandals Church. We're so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown from our series, the gospel 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: Hi, and welcome to Sandals Church. I have some really good news today. Are you ready to hear? Yes. Our daughter had our grandson finally.
Thank you. I know. I'm very very excited. It was a long labor. I thought I was gonna die.
But, we got through it, and we're just so grateful to welcome, little Weston into our lives. I'll try not to cry, but I'm super excited, and it's such a blessing. So, thank you for all your prayers, and just your love for our family so, I'm excited. Some of our staff though are trying to call me grandpa, and, they will all be terminated this week so, you know, not ready for that. But I want to talk today about trusting God for the impossible.
And, if you're new to faith, a lot of the things that are hard when you begin your walk in faith, is things that are impossible. Maybe you wouldn't say it impossible, maybe you would say unbelievable. And when you enter the realm of God, you enter the realm of the impossible. That that's where God lives, that's where we need God to exist, and we're gonna talk about that today. And so last week, was the most difficult part of Matthew, the genealogy.
And what I wanna encourage you, if you have any questions about the genealogy, why don't why doesn't the genealogy in Matthew match Luke, don't Google it. Ask me on the debrief, and I'll explain the best you can, kind of the conclusions that I've come to. But a lot of times, you know, people look at differences in the bible and what they're looking for is an excuse to not believe. K? This bible has been translated thousands and thousands of times by multiple scholars in different languages, and it's a beautiful thing.
And I want you to know that the Bible that we have is the Bible that God meant us to have. Amen. It has been freely translated across language and across culture. No other religious book on earth can make that claim. That's right.
It's a beautiful thing and it's incredible thing, and we're blessed to have all of these different translations and these different languages. And when I was a kid, you know, people that didn't believe in the bible talked about it like the telephone. You know, you you play telephone and you say one thing and by the end you get another thing. I I That's not an accurate way of thinking of the Bible. I want you to think of it like a puzzle.
And we have more pieces than we need. But with all of the translations, actually 27,000 of the manuscripts, we can put the puzzle together and we can figure out which pieces fit and which don't and it's actually God's way of protecting his word. It's truly a beautiful thing. So, if you have questions, feel free to ask in the debrief. If you're not following the debrief, you need to do that because the show is only as good as your questions.
And so, I wanna be answering those for you. But, for anybody that's battling, maybe you're in an impossible situation with your finances, in a relationship. Maybe you're battling a health crisis. I don't know what it is, but I want you to be reminded today that we worship a God, to which to him nothing is impossible. And so, we're gonna talk about this idea of the virgin birth.
Now, if you go to a local university, they're gonna mock you, they're gonna make fun of you, but here's the truth, when it comes to God, God can do anything. Yeah. And God does something extraordinary, does something impossible in the life of 2 people. Last week was 42 names. Today, we're only gonna talk about 2 names, Mary and Joseph.
And they both they both trust God for the impossible. And I wanna speak to our young people today. What would happen at Sandals Church, those of you who are single, those of you who are young? K? And how do you know if you're young?
If you're asking, am I young? Nope, you're not. That's how you know. If you pause, you're over the hill. So, for those of you who are young, I want you to to to think about, what would it look like to radically trust God?
Because Mary and Joseph did. Mary's probably a teenager. Joseph is probably in his late teens, early twenties. So, collectively, they're not as old as me. But they, in their obedience, change the world.
So if you have your bibles, let's open up to Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 through 25. And I want you to take vigorous notes. It says, this is how Jesus, the Messiah, was born. Right? So my grandson, Weston, he has a story of how he was born.
Jesus is a real person. He's not imaginary. He's not he's not something fake that was made up, or or myth that, you know, that's been talked about for 2000 years. He's a real person born in a real town with real parents. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph.
But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, I want you to circle that, We're gonna talk about that and why that's important in the last point of today's message. She became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, we don't understand how this happened, but the Holy Spirit came upon her, and the Spirit of God impregnated her in a mystical way. Okay? This was not intercourse, it was mystical.
She's still a virgin, and we will find out about this later. Joseph to whom she was engaged, he was a righteous man, and I want you to think if you're a young man, am I a righteous man? You see God handpicked Mary and Joseph for a reason. Joseph was a righteous man, he was a good man. And he did not want to disgrace her publicly.
Right? He wasn't gonna blast her on social media. Amen? Right. You know?
I mean, think about how breakups are now today. You break up, and it always cracks me up. You eliminate your girlfriend from every single page it's ever been, because that's so helpful to the healing. Right? You know, you no longer exist.
You know, in the eighties, all we did was scratch your picture out in the yearbook, that was it. We just scratched it out. So he decided to break off the engagement publicly. And you wanna know why that is? Her life is at risk.
K? This is this is scandalous. But as he considered this, think about this, guys. Don't just be impulsive. Consider things.
Think. Thinking is hard. I know. He considered this, and the angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream. Joseph, listen to this, son of David, the angel speaks to David for who he really is.
I wonder if in your life ever, God has spoken to you for who you really are. You see, so many of us, we look in the mirror, and we criticize ourselves because we forget who we really are. Joseph is a descendant of a king. I want you to know, if you're a born again Christian, you are a descendant of a king of kings, and the Lord of lords. You are royalty.
You are VIP forever. Amen. Stop talking down to yourself in the mirror, and remind yourself when you look in the mirror who God says you are.
McKay Vandenberg: Hey, Sandals Church. Thank you so much for joining in today's message with pastor Matt Brown. I wanted to take a quick moment to invite you into the work that Sandals Church is doing. One way you can do that is by giving financially. If you head to give dotsc, you can do so there.
For now, let's get back into our message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Now one of the things I want you to know, many Christians misunderstand. This is probably one of the most misunderstood theological things in the bible. Angels are not a description of what they are. So, when we think of an angel, it's it's not a being. Angel is a description of what a being does.
Angel in the Bible, both in the Hebrew and in the New Testament means messenger. It's like your mailman.
Zac Applegate: Right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: K? If your mailman's not working, you don't call them a mailman, or a mailwoman, or a mailperson, or whatever we say today. That's their job. An angel has a job. An angel is a spiritual being, we don't know exactly what they are.
Their role is a messenger. Angelos means messenger. So, not an angel, but a messenger of God appeared to Joseph. A lot of Christians don't know that, and some are like, I've never learned that. You're learning, That's why your brain hurts.
Okay? Amen. So an angel is a spiritual being that has been sent by God to be an angel, to be a messenger. And so the spiritual being from heaven is sent by God as an angel to Joseph. And he says, son of David, the angel said, the messenger said, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Amen. This is extraordinarily unique. Jesus is the unique son of God. That's right. K?
And his masculinity or or his father's side does not come from Joseph, it comes from God. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. So think about this guys, the kid's not yours, and you don't get to name him. He has a name that was chosen before the foundations of the world. Why?
For he will save his people from their sins. You see, Jesus was not conceived in sin, he was conceived by the holy spirit to set people free from their sins. He said all of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through the prophet. You see, the whole bible from beginning to end is about Jesus. So Jesus said, you study the scriptures because you think in them contain eternal life.
You know what Jesus said? They're about me. They're about me. That's why there can be professors at universities that have a PhD in scripture, and they don't know Jesus. Because they're studying a book, they're not looking for the person the book is about.
He said, look, the virgin will conceive a child. This is the prediction. And she will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel. Jesus has multiple names. Emmanuel meaning God with us.
That's right. Then Joseph woke up, and he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him to do, and he took Mary as his wife. Man, some of the most men in our church that I'm the most proud of, are the men in our church that fall in love with women who have kids that aren't theirs, and they raise them. Come on. Come on.
They raise them. Let me tell you something guys, if that's you, you have a special place in my heart and you have a special place in God's heart. Joseph was a man's man. It's not his kid, but he's gonna raise him. And he's gonna raise him upright.
He did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph, listen, he named him Jesus. He did what the angel said. So number 1 on your notes, here's what I want you to see. Look at this.
A disciple of Jesus. Now I don't know if you're a disciple or not, but a disciple of Jesus trusts that God can do the impossible. That's right. Amen. God can do the impossible.
What is it that you're facing that you cannot do? That's where you need God. You you you cannot pay your bills, that's where you need God. You cannot survive in your marriage, that's where you need God. Amen.
You're struggling to conceive your own child, that's where you need God. Yeah. Yeah. You don't need God in the things you can do, you need God in the things you you can't do. That's right, man.
That's dangerous. That's why people need God.
Zac Applegate: Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Where do you need God? Matthew 1 20 through 21, as he considered this, there's that word again guys, what are you considering? What are you thinking about? You're like, nothing. Start considering.
The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Joseph, son of David, the angel said, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her is conceived of the Holy Spirit. Listen to me, God is working, and you gotta trust that. Amen. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Amen. Thank you, Jesus. I don't know what it is that you're facing, what it is that you think. You think there's no way out, there's no possible way I can get out of this. With God, you can.
Jesus has a conversation with a rich young man. He says, what do I gotta do to be saved? And Jesus said, one thing, so all that you have and come and follow me, and the man left very discouraged.
Zac Applegate: Right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: It always cracks me up, college students always want to surrender everything to Jesus. I'm like, oh, even your debt? You wanna give the Lord your debt? You know, it's easy when you're poor to surrender everything, but when you've made a little money, you bought a house, you have some stuff, you've worked hard, then it becomes very very difficult to surrender to Jesus.
Zac Applegate: You know
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: what I found at Sandals? The more you make, the less you give. The more money you make, the less you give. It's true. One time I was praying with a rich guy from our church, and he was asking me to pray for his finances.
And I said to him, I said, I just I just wanna understand this. You want me to ask God so that your life won't be like mine. I said that. See what I'm saying? That's why they don't that's why they don't let me around them.
You know? Right? Listen to me. It's the people in this church who struggle, who are trusting God, who give to God, who make this church work. Amen.
Amen. Amen. So here's the thing. Trust God. And if God has blessed you and you are wealthy, don't be an example of what I've said.
Be the exception of what I've said. Be generous with what the Lord has given you. So this rich guy comes up to Jesus. Man, I wanna I wanna follow God, I wanna be saved. Jesus tells him what he needs to do, he's not interested, he goes away.
The Bible says Jesus was sad. Then Jesus looked at his disciples because they're like, then who can be saved? Who, like because in the ancient world, God loved you if you were rich, and God was scolding you if you were poor. And they're like, well, who who who can be saved? Jesus said this, humanly speaking, it's impossible,
Zac Applegate: but
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: not with God. Look at this. Jesus looked at them intently, and He said, humanly speaking, it's impossible. You cannot save yourself, but not with God. Everything is possible with God.
Everything is possible. You You know when I started Sandals Church, a lot of pastors laughed at me. You're gonna call it sandals. Why? Because you can't afford shoes?
And the truth is, we couldn't. We had nothing.
Zac Applegate: But do
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: you know what sandals was? It was a dream from God. It was a vision from God. And look what God did. I want you I want you to think about where your life would be 28 years from now if today you left this message and you said, I'm gonna radically trust God for the impossible.
For the impossible. And for those of you who are struggling financially, it's never been my desire to make $1,000,000. You know what my dream is? To give the church $1,000,000. That's my dream.
Because what does that mean? I've been blessed. I don't ask God to increase my stuff. I ask God to increase my giving. And the Lord has constantly done that.
Constantly done that. Listen to me, impossible situations lead to growth in faith. Some of you are terribly afraid of the very thing you need to grow in your faith. Let me say that again, some of you are terribly afraid of the thing that God needs to grow your faith. When I get on an airplane I ask the Lord, don't do not strengthen my faith.
Lord, I just I just want to forget that you're God, I want to eat my snacks and watch my show. Because what happens if that plane starts shaking? Oh, I'm spiritual. I am spiritual, the Lord and I are 1. But here's the thing, in your marriage, with your health, with whatever's going on, when we turn to ourselves, we become overwhelmed with anxiety and fear.
When we look inward, we collapse. But when we look upward, we experience peace. When we turn to Jesus, we become filled, listen to this, with His love and His peace. How many of you want His love and His peace? Come on.
Look at the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 1 verse 4. Revelation is a scary book. Yes, it is.
Zac Applegate: But look
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: at how it begins. Grace and peace to who? You. You. From who?
From the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come. Amen. Man. Grace and peace to you. From who?
From the one who is. From the one who always was. And the one that is to come. What if you just lived in that this week? Don't worry, Joseph.
I know when a teenage girl gets pregnant, that's time to panic. Don't worry. Because the one who is, the one who is to come, and the one who has always been, this is his plan. And he loves you.
Zac Applegate: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And he loves Mary, and he loves the world.
Zac Applegate: Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: But you know what the problem is? We focus on our love. Man, when my daughter was going through labor, you guys, I I was to say that I was a mess is is not even fair. I was a puddle on the floor, you know? That's my baby, my girl.
And my wife's like, you weren't afraid when I was in labor. I was young and stupid, you know? But it was a weird thing. We were in the same hospital, almost next to the same room where my daughter came out. We're getting ready for my grandson and I'm telling you, I was not full of faith.
I was full of fear. And it's not that I didn't love her. It's not that I didn't love my grandson. The problem was my love. Look at first John 4:18.
Perfect love Amen. Expels all fear. You know what's wrong with my love? It's not perfect. Come on.
It's not perfect. When you're afraid, it means you're running low on God's love. You're running low on God's love? That's why I wanna encourage you this year. Go to church every week.
You wanna know why you run out of God's love? Fast.
Zac Applegate: That's right. Yep. Fast.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Some of you need to go to church every day. Even if the doors are closed, just sit in the parking lot and be like, I need it. I need it. Perfect love casts out all fear. So when I'm afraid, I'm empty of God's love and I need to be full.
Think about this. In your marriage, you love each other and you still fight. You know why it's not perfect love? Right. You know?
Even as I looked at my little grandson, I'm like, I'm never gonna get upset with you. I will. Because he's not perfect, I'm not perfect.
McKay Vandenberg: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: You know? I remember when we came home and my son, we we we were so poor,
Zac Applegate: you know, because you guys pass.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: We bought our 1st brand new dining room table, and my son colored the whole table with a Sharpie.
Zac Applegate: Oh, yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Yeah. And he's talented. But you know what's funny? I was so mad when he did that, now I tell my wife never fix it. Oh.
Never fix it.
Zac Applegate: Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: No family's perfect, no kid's perfect. That's right. When you come to my house at dinner, you're like, what what's what's That's love. That's perfect love. Listen to what Jesus said, I wanna encourage some of you guys.
Look at Jesus in John 14, don't let your hearts be troubled. I feel like that's my spiritual gift. Like, Pastor Matt, what is your greatest gift? A troubled heart. Don't let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, and also trust in Me.
Man, so many of my Jewish friends, they, they just struggle with who Jesus is. They struggle. We believe in 1 God, His name is Yahweh. The Father is Yahweh. The Son is Yahweh.
And the Spirit is the Spirit of Yahweh. And somehow, they're distinct and the same. Amen. And Jesus is saying, you trust in God. Come on.
Trust in me. That's right. I wanna encourage you to do that today. Amen. Jesus is calling us to trust him right now.
That's right. A disciple a disciple of Jesus creates a desire to do what God asks no matter how challenging. When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. What would your life look like this week if you just did what God commanded you? A disciple look at this.
A disciple must move from focusing on what's impossible to what is obedience. What does God want me to do? What is God asking me to do? Right? Mary and Joseph were overwhelmed.
Think about young people, they can't afford a house, cars are expensive, taxes are crazy. All the things that you experience, they're experiencing, and we got a kid, and Joseph says, it's from the Lord. Listen to me. We become overwhelmed when we focus on the impossible, we become full of strength when we focus on God. Look what 1st Peter 1 14 through 15 says, so you must live as God's obedient children.
Don't focus on the impossible, focus on the obedience. I don't know how I'm gonna pay rent. Don't focus on the impossible, focus on your tithing. So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.
That's the woke church. The woke church says, live for you. The real church says, live for God. Amen. That's the real church.
And listen to me, I don't like to be political, but let me tell you why California's a mess. Because we've gone woke, now we're broke, and we're burning. That is a picture of your future if you don't start trusting God. You need to start trust Don't slip back. God delivered you from that.
You don't need to go back to the bottle. God delivered from you that. You don't need to go back to the prostitute. God delivered you from that. You needed to go don't go back to your anxiety.
God delivered you from that. You know you know what sin does, you've been there. If the bottle could solve it, you wouldn't ever had to drink again. Listen to me, we we got 12 step recovery starting up again here at Hunter Park. Some of you guys need to get in there, you need to recover.
This is your year not to go back, but to go forward. To go forward. I remember the 1st year of my life in my twenties, I didn't look at porn the whole year. I cannot tell you what that was like. I was set free, and I'm never going back.
And you don't have to either. You can be free. You can be free of your addictions. You can be free of those things, but you gotta take a step forward. You gotta trust God, and you gotta know that God is calling you to something different.
You see you didn't know any better then. But now you know you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. Look at that verse, you didn't know any better than Stop judging non Christians. What's worse? The prostitute who doesn't know God or the Christian who watches her prostitute herself online?
What's worse? One is blind, one sees, but is ignoring it. Stop judging sinners. Judge yourself, and live for holiness. Listen to me, holiness is rarely easy.
If it was, everybody would do it. We'd be running around, I'm so holy, aren't you? Holiness is rarely easy, but it is always the call of the disciple. So let me ask you, where this week do you need to work on holiness? And by the way, holiness is not perfection, it means set apart.
Set apart. I had this conversation with my son when he turned 21, I said, you're not doing anything, or struggling with anything that is not normal to any 21 year old. I'm asking you, are you called to be normal, or are you called to follow Christ? Those are different things. Where in the Bible does it tell you just to be normal?
It tells you to be supernatural, and to follow God. So
Zac Applegate: think
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: about this with your words this week. Are your words holy? I get it. I live in a world with unholy people. Amen?
Good God. I'm good with words. Do you know what I could do with this mouth? Like, if there was MMA for mouth fighting, I would be the champion. There'd be a big old manly dude just crying, Pastor Matt hurt my feelings.
I gotta control this full time. Next with your actions, what are you doing? What are you doing? Where are you going? How are you acting?
Do you understand this? As a Christian, you're responsible for what you do with your body. Next, with your grace. Do you think people are gonna stop being idiots? No.
No. So why do you keep joining them? Give grace. Give grace. Tammy and I were pulling out of the hospital this week, and we motioned for the guy to walk in front of us, and he didn't move.
We didn't move. We waited for him, and he did this. In my heart, I wanted to run him over. We were trying to be kind and we got this. I wanted to get out of the car and say, you don't look like you're in good enough shape to be walking at all.
Next, see what I didn't share? With your faithfulness. Amen. Yeah. COVID has ruined some of your faithfulness.
Amen. Church attendance is at an all time low. You're faithful to the things that you love. Do you love God? Then be faithful to church.
Amen. Next, with service. My neighbor came up because we've been without power. You wanna talk about losing my mind? Every single neighbor has power.
Our house, we have 3 neighbors. We have no power, they all have power. We're watching them watch TV, Turning lights on and off. Their refrigerators are cold. We, we haven't, we're the only person on our street without power.
The Lord was like, no. But he came over and he was talking to me, and I found out he's a baseball coach, and I was like I was like, how do you even do that? Because I let me tell you something, I coached like 1 year, I could not do it. And you know why? I can't stand parents who can get their kids to practice, won't serve at all.
I'm in the candy club selling Snickers bars that I don't even eat for your kid. I said, how do you even do that? He said, it's tough. Listen to me. People that don't know God, they don't know how to serve.
Christians, if you're if you're a disciple, you're a servant. That's right. And you cannot tell me that you worship a servant and you don't serve. Come on now, man. That's right.
Zac Applegate: Well, I'm trying to
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: figure out my calling. Your calling is to be a servant. That's your calling.
Zac Applegate: That's right, man.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: What you do is say put me in coach and we tell you.
Zac Applegate: Well, I don't feel like that's my spiritual gift. Can you imagine the disciples Jesus, like, go tell me
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: go tell that guy I need a donkey. I don't I'm
Zac Applegate: not good with talking to people, Lord. I don't I don't feel like that's my gift.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Next, how about with forgiveness? A Christian who can't forgive is a weak Christian. You're weak. You're not strong. Don't talk to me about your quiet time, your little Instagram posts, I'm just reading the Lord's word.
Forgive or shut up? Oh. Forgive.
Zac Applegate: Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Alright. 1st John 5:3, loving God means keeping His commandments. Oh, it's about relationship, not about rules. Okay, there's one rule, obey. Loving God means keeping His commands, and His commands are not burdensome.
If you are a Christian, you enjoy doing what God says. Amen. If you don't like obeying God, maybe you don't know God. We are called to keep his commands, and they're not a burden. Last point, a disciple of Jesus, and I know this is counterculture, but all of Christianity is, a disciple of Jesus connects the need for private per purity to experience public power.
Zac Applegate: That's good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: If you are not pure privately, you will never experience the power of God publicly. Ever. I cannot stand up here and preach if I'm a mess in my private life. It cannot happen. Two reasons, I know God's power will not be with me and I do not wanna be struck dead.
Come on. Amen. Come on somebody. To some of you guys, you had family members die in crazy ways. You're like,
Zac Applegate: I just don't know what happened. I'm like,
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: I think I know. You're like, God still kills people, God He can do whatever he wants. That's right. He's God. It's not murder, it's your time.
Zac Applegate: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Some of you need to fear the Lord. Matthew 1 18, look at this. This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph, but before the marriage took place, while she still was a virgin, listen to me dating people, they weren't having sex. Well, everybody's doing it and we're in love.
That's not what they were doing. Mary and Joseph were honorable in their dating life. They dedicated themselves to the Lord. Amen. And I wanna encourage you to do the same thing.
But look at this, Matthew 124 through 25. When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded, and he took Mary as his wife. They're married, Hold on. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. He's married, and he's still not getting any.
Some of the men in our church are like, well, we're really holy too. Oh. I'm not saying, listen to me. Unless your wife is birthing Jesus, this is not for you. Sexual intimacy is an important part of marriage.
Zac Applegate: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Okay? Of marriage, dating people.
Zac Applegate: Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And here's the thing, this is what dating people don't know. The same self control you need in dating is the same self control you need in marriage. That's right. I told you this story, this girl came up to me at the gym, she said, you're the best looking guy in here. I was like, well Tammy hasn't
Zac Applegate: noticed, you know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: I said, I'm married. She said, I don't care. That felt good though, a little booster, you know, a little booster. I hadn't got a booster in a while from my wife. She's got a list of all the things I haven't done lately.
The same self control you need in dating, is the same self control you need in marriage.
Zac Applegate: Let me
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: tell you why. Look at this, sexual sin robs me of spiritual power. Man, why didn't Joseph and Mary have sex? They needed all the spiritual power they could get. Can you imagine?
You guys are gonna carry the son of God. And so they dedicated themselves to purity even in the context of marriage. Now if you grew up Catholic, they taught you that they never did it. That's not what the Bible says. You know, Joseph had some pent up energy.
So later there were several children. Okay. Just saying. I know Catholics have their tradition, but this says otherwise. Come on.
Because sex is not a sin. God just told them to abstain for a period of time because they were holy, not perfect, but set apart for a specific purpose.
Zac Applegate: Yep. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: 1st Corinthians 6 18. Run from sexual sin. You know what I don't do? I don't go into a strip club and play pray for strength. Look, if I find myself attracted to a woman who's not my wife, do you know what I do?
I don't I don't even apologize. I just leave. I just leave. Because I would rather insult somebody than slip. I just leave.
Why? No other sin. Look at this. No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against yourself.
You're not an animal. You're created in the image of God. Amen. And more than that, if you're a Christian, look at this. Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?
You don't just go to church, you are the church. Come on. The temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God. You do not belong to yourself. I hear this all the time.
Oh, I have personal agency, not if you're a Christian. Your personal agency was nailed to the cross with Jesus and His personal agency. You do not belong to your yourself, you were bought with a price, a high price, and so you must honor God with your body. Amen. I know this is hard.
This is the calling. Mary and Joseph did it. So can you. Yes, it is. So can you.
Let's trust God for the impossible. Some of you feel like, you know what? I can never give up my porn addiction. I can never be sexually pure. Maybe on your own, you can't, but but with Jesus you can.
You can. And we got groups here at this church of people that'll come alongside you and be real with you. We're not here to judge you, we're here to set you free. And that's sandals. That's the gospel.
That's what it means to be a disciple. A disciple sees their body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we exercise discipline, hear that word? Discipline, you actually hear the word disciple in it? A disciple is disciplined. And I wanna encourage you to do that.
So this week, just just tell the Lord, Lord, I wanna be set free. I know I've said this a 1000 times, but you are the God where all things are possible. And you can change this, and you can heal this, and you can change me, and he can and he will. Let me close by praying for you. I love you guys.
This sermon series is the most important series of your life. This year is your year. We're like Mary and Joseph, you begin a journey of holiness and discipleship. Mary and Joseph weren't perfect, but they were faithful. That's right.
They were faithful. That's right. And so can you. Amen. Let's pray.
Heavenly father, we pray in the name of Jesus that you would help us all to become disciples of Christ. Lord, let us release our fears of the impossible, and let us trust you because in you, all things are possible. God, help us to honor you with our bodies, to honor you with our lives, to honor you with our purity. We pray this, Lord Jesus, in your son's name, and all God's people said, amen.
Morgan Teruel: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this 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.