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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 Scott, and I'm a part of the team here at Sandals Church. We're so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message from pastor Fredo teaching us in our Matthew 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 Fredo Ramos:We love stories that end with resolution. When the movie fades to black, the Hans Zimmer score begins to play again and giving you chills all over again. Or when that couple makes it despite the dude being kind of an idiot and unstable job and a sketchy past, they still resolve and make it out in the end. Or when the hero finally wins out and we get the Tony Stark line, I love you 3,000. We love stories with resolution.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But real life isn't always like that. And honestly neither is the bible. The bible's actually full of stories that don't resolve cleanly. Stories that leave you with more questions. Stories that leave you actually in your pain.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Stories that have you processing regret and not so much redemption, at least not immediately. And actually, what if this is good news? Because if scripture was only made up of neat and tidy kinda moral of the story moments, it would not match the complexity of your life and my life. Because not everything in your life plays out like a Star Wars movie. At least not a good Star Wars movie, a la Empire Strikes Back and Andor, which is maybe the greatest thing on television right now.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Sometimes in your life, people say things to you that leave you stunned for weeks. Which is why maybe some of you right now in this moment are still processing the words of a friend that you heard six months ago. Sometimes things happen that feel senseless, like there's no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes we're left actually with tears questioning what God is doing. Life is complicated.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Your life today could be a mess. It's not resolved all the way. But it's actually in those stories, it's in those parts of our lives that we actually discover the honesty we need. Amen. And are surprised by grace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And today's passage is no different. It's one of those stories that is unresolved. It's messy. It doesn't quite make sense. It's violent.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's awkward. To be honest with you, it reads more like a Netflix original than it does a story in the bible. We have a beheading, we have a birthday party, we have a seductive dancer. It's bizarre. And some are like, damn, didn't know this was in the bible.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Like I'm gonna start reading it. But through all of that, God has a word for us today. Out of a complicated, messy, unresolved story, God has a word for your unresolved life as well. And so if you're willing and able, I'm gonna ask that you would stand with us for the reading of God's word. We'll be in Matthew chapter 14 beginning in verse one.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Matthew writes these words. When Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee heard about Jesus, he said to his advisors, this must be John the Baptist raised from the dead. This is why he can do such miracles. For Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife Herodias, the former wife of Herod's brother Philip. John had been telling Herod, it is against God's law for you to marry her.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Herod wanted to kill John, he was afraid of a riot because all the people believed John was a prophet. But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias' daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him. So he promised a vow to give her anything she wanted. At her mother's urging, the girl said, I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray. Then the king regretted what he had said.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But because of the vow he made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders. So John was beheaded in the prison and his head was brought out on a tray and given to the girl who took it to her mother. Later John's disciples came for his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what had happened. This is God's word.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the gift of scripture and we ask now that you would speak to us from it. And that as Jesus said, you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might become all that you want us to be in him. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. My, my, my y'all.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You know I thought going to birthday parties for my kids classmates and having to make small talk for two hours with other parents was a bit of a challenge and strange today. But this birthday party is wildly beyond any of that. And it's difficult for us to imagine what do we make of a story like this? What do what do we do with this? And and how do we make sense of this in light of our own lives?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I think what becomes very apparent, at least at the forefront of a casual reading of this, is that John paid the ultimate price for speaking truth. He really did. And that following Jesus will cost all of us something. Which is, you know, an unfortunate thing to hear. Welcome to Sandals Church.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Following Jesus is going to cost you something. But we can't ignore that truth. I think especially in light of the brothers and sisters in Nigeria right now in this moment who are dying because of their faith. Following Jesus is going to cost you. It really will.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so as we wrestle with that, I want us to just think through this passage verse by verse, kinda work through it, and then I think we'll land on what I believe God is saying specifically to Sandals Church. And so let's look together specifically, at verses one and two. When Matthew writes, when Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee heard about Jesus, he said to his advisors, this must be John the Baptist raised from the dead. That's why he can do such miracles. Let's pause there for a second.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now at first reading, this would have shocked the original audience. Why do I say that? Because they're like reading, wait, John's dead? He's dead? This was news to them.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And in the mind of Herod, he thinks that Jesus, who he's now hearing about doing all of these miracles, his ministry is growing, he's like, oh my gosh, John's back from the dead. That's why he's able to do this. Now let's bear in mind what was going on at the time. This Herod Antipas there in verse one is not Herod the Great. In the beginning of Matthew's gospel, his biography of Jesus, we're introduced to a Herod.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's Herod the Great. That's Antipas' father. He was incredibly successful, hence the name Great. And if you remember it's at the announcement that Jesus is born, the Messiah is here, Emmanuel, God with us, our Christmas story freaks Herod the Great out. Because this announcement that a Messiah is here is a threat to Herod the Great.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so as you remember, he has children massacred in hopes that his power would not be robbed from him. Which is a cautionary reminder I think for all of us that success does not always lead to the comfort you want in your life. Amen. Success often can lead to a paranoia. And that was the paranoia that marked Herod the Great.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So paranoid he had some of his wives killed, he had three of his sons killed because they he thought they would take his position. And so here we are now in Matthew 14, Herod the great son Antipas is now in charge ruling over Galilee. And he's hearing news of Jesus and he's freaking out thinking it's John raised from the dead. Why? Because he has a guilty conscience.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He knows what he did was wrong. He murdered an innocent righteous person in John the Baptist. And it's haunting him. He's like, oh my gosh John's back to get me again. It's haunting him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now again this would have shocked the readers like, my gosh, John's dead. What happened? Well, Matthew in Quentin Tarantino fashion is going to start with the end and then go back to the beginning. So verse three is a flashback. Let's continue reading.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It says there, for Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife Herodias, the former wife of Herod's brother Philip, in parenthesis, like Matthew spilling a little tea here for us. John had been telling Herod, it's against God's law for you to marry her. Herod wanted to kill John but he was afraid of a riot because all the people believed John was a prophet. Let's let's stop there. Matthew's given us tea.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Here's the problem that was going on. John the Baptist was speaking out against Herod Antipas. Specifically about his marriage. Why? Well as he said, Herod was originally married.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But then left that wife, why? Because he started an affair with his brother's wife Herodias. And that's a problem. Why is that a problem? Well, John is thinking, Herod, here you are claiming to be the king of the Jews.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You're ruling over Galilee. But according to the Torah, this is against the law. Leviticus 18 verse six. No one should draw close to a family relative and have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Plain and simple, right? Like don't hook up with family. That's just That's just good old testament advice. Right? And so, John is saying, listen, according to the law, which you wanna be claimed over the people who follow that law, you're breaking it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And this created a problem, this created a stir, and so Herod has him thrown in prison as a favor to his wife Herodias. Why? Because, well, her reputation is now ruined. The whole empire found out about this. And so now John's in prison because of the way that he was speaking out against Herod.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And we're told there in verse six, this story gets even more twisted. At a birthday party for Herod, Herodias' daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him. Now, the language is a bit PG there. He was seduced. Now here's why this is even more twisted.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because at some point in the line of this dysfunctional family tree, some of y'all think you've got a dysfunctional family. Listen to this. At some point along the lines of the Herods, cousins married each other. Which meant not only did Antipas steal his brother's wife, Herodias, Herodias was also Herod's niece. He married his niece.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Which makes then Herodias' daughter also Herod's niece by marriage. So he's being seduced at his birthday party by his niece, who scholars believe is maybe 12 or 13 years old. Are you grossed out yet? He's seduced by her. Wow.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:His lust overcame his logic. So before we judge the man, many of us know what this is like. Where you're lusting to a point where you're now doing things you would have never done before. The power of unchecked impulsive sexual desires will send us places we would have never imagined. This is a gross scene that's unfolding.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This young girl, who by the way, we're told there in verse eight, read read along with me, it says at the at her mother's urging. So the mom is okay with this. Think about this for a second, especially for the parents out here. As parents, we're meant to love our children, not use our children. And she's using her daughter to get some weird, twisted act of vengeance on John the Baptist.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This man who's ruined her reputation. Now why do I say that? Well, because in Mark's account of this story, he notes that Herodias nursed a grudge against John the Baptist for years. So this is her moment to finally get it back. And in this sick, twisted birthday party, using her own daughter to seduce her husband.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's told there that he promised a vow to give her anything she wanted. And at her mother's urging the girl said, I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray. I wanna focus on verse nine. Then the king regretted what he had said. Why?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Why would Herod regret? Why would he regret this? Here's what I want you to know. Herod had a like a very complicated love hate relationship with John the Baptist. Meaning he we're told respected John the Baptist even though he disliked his message.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This was John's message, you know. There's only one song on his Spotify playlist and he plays this and sings it and preaches it every single day and it says, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. And so we're told in Mark's account, Herod heard this message a lot and respected John for it. Why do I wanna take time to reflect on this? Well, because we find ourselves living in a moment where you can read a story like John the Baptist and think, man, he stood for truth.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He was courageous and it cost him his life. I'm gonna do that too. Well, let's be careful and let's think about this. Why? Because Herod respected John.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I think that respect for John was rooted in the fact that John lived a righteous life. He just didn't preach a righteous message. He lived a righteous life. And so for us today, it it's one thing to say, man, I'm going to speak truth to power. It's another thing to say, I'm also going to live that truth in my own life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And my concern as a pastor for our church and many churches, particularly here in the West, is that we love to be public with our righteousness but not private with our righteousness. And that private kind of righteous life is what leads a evil wicked man like Herod to respect John the Baptist and to say, I regret this decision right now. Yes, I'm filled with lust, I'm overwhelmed, I'm drunk at my party off wine and power, but I regret the fact that I now gotta take the life of this man who I know is a righteous man. What would it look like for you and I to make a decision? To where we're not so thinking about courage in terms of I can't wait to post my truth.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But we're thinking about courage in the way that we love our neighbors. I'm a little bothered that we only talk about courage as it relates to telling people the truth. Why don't we talk about courage when it comes to service? Courage with our love. Courage with our giving.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Courage with our forgiveness. Friends, are other ways for righteousness to be declared. And I think it's time for us to reimagine a righteous life that is not just seen with our lips, but it comes out in our hands and our feet. That's what we're called for. That's what we're called for.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because Herod in this moment was moved at his decision now. He's gotta take his life. And we we we go on in this story. The guards are given instructions. He issued the necessary orders.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And John's beheaded. Now this party was probably going late into the night. John's probably, you know, we're told Herod's in his palace. He he built beautiful palaces there in Galilee. John's probably downstairs in a prison cell sleeping for all we know.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Wakes up. His life is taken from him. And then if it can't get any weirder, the head of John the Baptist is brought out on a tray. The daughter carries it to her mother at the party. At the party.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:How many of you are grossed out yet? What are we to make of this story? What what are we to make of this? You know I've been wrestling with that for like the last day since I found out I was teaching. Thinking about alright how do we draw something out from this beheading story.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then I was taken to second Timothy three sixteen where I'm reminded by Paul that all scripture is God breathed. And it's useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and Paul says the training in righteousness. So that the servant of God, the man or woman of God might be fully equipped for what? For every good work. All scripture is God breathed.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Matthew 14 is God breathed. Amen. And is useful for your life and my life. To teach us, to rebuke us, to correct us, and to train us in righteousness. Meaning there is a good work that God has planned for you this week.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That somehow in the messy, complicated, unresolved story of the beheading of John the Baptist, he desires to equip you now. And I think the way that he wants to equip us is by us reflecting on these individual characters. And so there's, three individuals I wanna focus on from this particular story. First, Herod. We're gonna look at John, and then we're gonna look at the disciples who were told take took his body and gave John a funeral.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then went and told Jesus. Let's first think about Herod for a second. I think there's a word for us to think about and notice from the life of Herod how the downward spiral of unchecked sin in our lives can lead to massive self destruction. The downward spiral of self destruction is so real. Notice the chain of events in Herod's life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's filled with lust and ambition and that leads him to make a choice to have an unlawful marriage to his brother's wife. That leads him then to make a choice to shut down God's prophet who speaks out against that marriage and throw him in prison. That leads them to make a choice to get drunk and then to offer a foolish promise after being seduced by his niece of all people. That then leads him to be cowardice, regret his decision, but not go back up on his promise. Which then ultimately leads him to murder a man he knows is righteous.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Here's the point. The big moral failures are the result of a thousand little choices. Always are. You know six months ago right after Father's Day our house flooded. Happy Father's Day.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And we we had a late, you know, leave. We've been out for about four and a half months. Last week, we finally got back in. It's been a gift. I'm sleeping so well, know.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I love being home. But over the course of the restoration process and everything getting remodeled, because we for sure made lemonade out of these lemons and we got nice new stuff. I ain't gonna lie to you. But our contractor helped us understood that, or helped us understand that this happened not because of like one massive burst in the house. It was a slow drip.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:A silent drip. And that's how it was with Herod's life. One that kind of went unnoticed but the damage went underwear. You know, went everywhere. The walls, the kitchen, the flooring, the foundation.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And the point says Herod didn't destroy his life in one decision. He let a thousand tiny drips of compromise rot the structure from the inside out. And so the question for all of you today is this. Do you have a similar pattern right now? Are you maybe unaware that what you do is who you become?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And is there maybe a pattern developing where one small compromise is going to lead to a chain reaction right now in your life? Be mindful of this. And I say this, listen, not at all as a condemnation, but as an invitation to become aware that what you do so you become. And so the invitation now is to repent. To repent.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:To turn direction. Why do I say that? Because the irony in Herod's story is that he had, as I mentioned, this kind of love hate relationship with John. And in fact, Mark's gospel, we we read these words about how he listened to John a lot, but yet he failed to repent. And so if we're taking out, I want you to I want you to write this down.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:My time for repentance is now. Your time for repentance is now. Listen to these words from Mark chapter six when it talked about Herod wrestling with the message of John yet not moving to a place of repentance. He said because Herod feared John and protected him knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, when Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled, yet he liked listening to him. Now, here's what I wanna focus on.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That word puzzle there refers to someone who's perplexed. In the Greek it means someone who's at a crossroads. Someone who's wrestling with the things that's being said to him. Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John's, or I'm sorry, Herod's wrestling with that.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's perplexed by it. He's at a crossroads. In other words, Herod likes listening to John. He listens to all of his social media posts. He downloads his podcasts.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's read his books. But liking the truth and living the truth are not the same thing. We are not to mistake conviction for actual repentance and transformation. Which means then that some of the most miserable people here in this church are not the people who are far from God, but those who are close enough to feel the tension of the truth, but not humble enough to live in the freedom of that same truth. And so, the invitation for our church today, before we pass judgment on people, is to assess whether or not I'm actually allowing the truth to reshape my life through the act of repentance.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Through the act of repentance. Your time is now. You don't know how much time you have left. Repent now. Make a decision now.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I don't care where you're at in your season of life. You know, just this morning, one of our pastors, John Martinez from Banning, he he sent a text to the pastors letting him letting us know that he was gonna potentially miss breakfast because he was going to baptize someone who according to him the night before gave his life to Christ. Now get this, this man's an elderly man. He's actually on potentially his deathbed. He doesn't know how much time he has left.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So John drove to Murrieta to baptize this man at the hospital who's willing to make a decision to repent now and declare that. What an opportunity. Someone who doesn't know how much time he has left but he wants to make the most of his life right now. So repent y'all. Repent.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Your time is now. Turn away and turn towards the good news of Jesus. And when I say repent, please don't hear me you know say to you, you gotta try harder. As if this is some kind of performance. Like there is a way to kinda preach repentance that is about getting it right and getting your life together because judgment's coming.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Judgment's coming. And let me be honest, that form of preaching and repentance is rooted oftentimes in fear. Well, better get it all together. I don't wanna be on on God's bad side. But remember the message of John.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Repent. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God is here. That's not bad news.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's good news. Repent. Turn away because the good thing is here. God is here. God is available to you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Turn from your life Herod. You are not king. And that's good news because the real king is here. Turn away. Repent not because bad is coming but because good is here.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Repentance is less about performance and punishment. Repentance is is less than about performance and punishment and far more about a pathway back home. Turn around because you don't wanna miss the good thing. Right. I I liken it to this.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:There's a growing tension in my marriage now and it has to do with my use of the bathroom. Ashley knows that whenever we show up somewhere, I gotta go to the bathroom. I don't know what this is. Know, it's just a calling from God. And so a few weeks back, I show up to my kid's school before school gets out because it's their chapel day and my son made the worship team.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He got his dad's pipes y'all, know. So he actually didn't. He he sings like Ashley. He's not not me. But I get there.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I get there a little early. Ashley works there at the school as well too. So I get in there and chat with her. And of course I'm like, oh I gotta use the restroom. And so I'm like, well it's early, I got time.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I'm gonna go use it before their chapel starts. And as I start to go she's like, no turn around. You don't wanna miss the good thing. Your son's about this thing. So hold it and go in there and watch chapel.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I think that's what repentance is like. Turn around. You don't wanna miss the good thing. You don't wanna miss the good thing. Repent.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The kingdom of heaven is near. Scriptures say, today is the day of salvation. If you hear his voice. If you hear his voice. Do not harden your heart.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Do not harden your heart, Sandals Church. If you hear his voice calling you. Because Herod Antipas got his wish. In Luke 23, he met Jesus face to face. There was a moment in the trial before the crucifixion of Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Pilate's trying to wash his hands of this responsibility, sends him to Herod. And Herod, we're told, is so excited to greet Jesus. Why? Because he wants a magic trick. He wants a miracle.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And we're told there, according to Luke's gospel, that Jesus just meets him with silence. Silence. Because his heart was so hard, he saw Jesus not as a savior, but as a performer. Show me a trick Jesus. And so I I say that as a caution.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The time to repent is now. Which means you have to move from just being in a place where you're listening to your guilt to where you're now responding to the grace of God. Respond to his grace. Because some of you, I think, are intrigued with Jesus. You liked his teachings.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You love listening to sermons. But you still have a Herod like pride that you're clinging to. Humble yourself. Humble yourself. Secondly, let's think about John the Baptist.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:John's beheading is the clearest picture. That doing the right thing does not always lead to earthly reward. You can be a righteous person and still suffer greatly. He didn't get celebrated, he didn't get a parade, he didn't have a platform, he didn't write Christian books, he got a prison cell and an early grave. And Jesus called him the greatest man to ever be born of a woman.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Let that sink in. That should tell us then as well that my faithfulness to God does not always lead to success but to suffering. Meaning you can be doing everything right now as a Christian, obeying Jesus, following him, and your life does not look successful. It doesn't look great. In fact, it's probably the opposite.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You feel forgotten, neglected, like John in a prison cell. And that's the reality that we sit with. Faithfulness oftentimes will lead to your suffering and my suffering. And Matthew intentionally gives us this story smack in the middle of his biography. There's 28 chapters in Matthew's gospel.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This is chapter 14. He's right in the middle. It's almost as if he is staking a sign in the ground saying, what happened to John is a preview of also what will happen to Jesus. And if it happened to Jesus, it will also begin to happen to his followers. There is a cost to following him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And that cost we all have to wrestle with. Because if you want glory, it will come through suffering. That is the cruciform way of following Jesus. Any kind of life, the main kind of life, the only kind of life that you desire to live, will come through suffering and not success. And faithfulness to that.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This is the words of Jesus from Matthew five. He says, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Think about that. Blessed, this this is fulfilled in the life of John the Baptist. Persecuted for righteousness.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He says, blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of who? Because of me. He goes on to say, rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Following Jesus will cost you everything.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But in the end, you will gain far more than you can possibly imagine. That is why we can look at suffering, not with like just a pessimistic view like, it's gonna happen. Or with like this kind of twisted view like, oh I can't wait to suffer this week. But with a steadiness, a kind of quiet confidence that you can be doing everything right and suffering is still waiting for you. And so I think for many of us the question is then, where do you need the courage to face suffering this week?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What risks do you need to take for God like John did that is going to help you face suffering and actually begin to help you reframe success in your life? Because that's probably the challenge for a lot of Christians. We need to reframe success around obedience and loving and serving and less around getting visibility or applause or influence. Right? Kingdom success is about doing the way of Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Following him. Obeying him at whatever cost might come. And I say this specifically to those of you, you know, maybe you're parents in here today and you're praying faithfully for your kids and you still see no change. That's success. That's obedience.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I'm talking to you men and women who are leading at your workplace. You're successful by the world standards but at the same time you have to resist compromise every day. Why? Because you want to live with integrity. You want to work with integrity.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so that's gonna cost you a paycheck. That might cost you a client. That might cost you time with your your friends at work. Right? They might mistreat you because of your desire to follow Jesus in the way that you work.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I'm talking to those of you who maybe you're you're a Christian brand new here at Sandals, and you're the only one in your family who's following Jesus. And it's gonna cost you isolation. You need the courage to reframe success around the fact that this is a beautiful calling of Jesus. To suffer with him. For those of you who are young, realizing that, man, to follow Jesus is going to cost me the kind of life I want to live in expressing my desires through my body.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's going to cost you something. And the good news is that God will not measure your life by what it produces in the short term, but by who you become in the long term. That's what we're aiming for. That's what we're hoping for. And so your story may imagined it, but it will end the way that God has designed it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because faithfulness will come through your suffering. And it will not always lead you to success or even look like it. Now lastly, the disciples. It's easy to read this crazy story and be like caught up like, dang. That's a wild birthday party y'all.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And miss the the the beautiful and also painful resolve here. In verse 12, we're told that later on the disciples came, recovered the body of John, and buried him. Remember, these were his disciples. They followed him for a long time. Their whole life was around John the Baptist.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He was their leader. He was their friend. They ate with him. They lived with him. They watched him teach.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You know, they watched him make a little locust sandwich every day, you know, out in the wilderness. And now they're grieving. And in their grief they perform one last final act of honor by recovering his body. He's their rabbi. And they bury it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They have a funeral. They did not rush past their grief. Don't miss this. They didn't rush past it. They carried his body from the palace to a place where they can bury him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I say that because as a pastor over the years I've discovered that as Christians trying to be faithful to God. Trying to sound right. We often times overlook and try to skip through our grief. They say, oh I'm doing okay pastor, I'm fine. Know, God's got me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:God's got me. I trust in Jesus. And and we short circuit the need to grieve well. And often times I'll find myself saying when I'm when I'm meeting with someone who's a loss, in fact I just said this a few weeks ago to someone over a call, I said have you been grieving well? And they were a little struck by that.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because again there's a temptation as Christians in the name of kind of offering the right lip service to just overlook grief and to not understand the holy role that it plays in our lives as disciples of Jesus. To grieve well. They buried their friend, they honored their pain, but then they went to Jesus. Don't miss that pattern. They buried their friend, they went to Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Which means then in my grief, I don't have to bury my hope. You bury your friends, you you you bury certain things that have happened in your life. You bury your loss, but you don't have to bury your hope. The Apostle Paul says these words in first Thessalonians four. We don't want you to be uninformed brothers about those who have fallen asleep.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's a phrase to describe those who have passed away. That you may not grieve as others who do not have hope. The Christian understanding and imagination around grief is one that is shaped by hope. We do not grieve as those who are without hope. And so for some of you this week, the truth is this, you might be burying something very painful.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You might be burying a dream. You might be burying a career. You might be burying a relationship, you might be, you know, burying some kind of aspiration, you might be burying someone you love, but you don't have to bury your hope. You do not have to bury your hope. You can, as the disciples did, perform the funeral and go to Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Amen. What has overwhelmed you will not overwhelm him because in his death, he defeats death. He swallows it whole. He he's able to be victorious over it and that is our hope as Christians. Because of what Jesus has accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, as it's been famously said, the worst thing that can happen to you will never be the last thing to happen to you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Which means in that sin, evil, death, the devil, they don't get the last word over your life. Jesus gets the last word over your life. And so in your grief, you do not have to bury your hope. You can find hope in him. And so it will cost you everything as it did John, but it doesn't end in a hopeless life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so as we go to prayer, I want us just to to enter into a moment where we maybe are honest about a few things. Honest about where we need a kind of courage that's marked not just by speaking the truth, but by living it. And where honestly we just need to say, God, need hope right now in light of what I've lost. Let's pray together. Jesus, we look to you as the author and finisher of our faith.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The one who has overcome death through your own death. And we ask now God that as we face the cost of following you, you would give us a hope filled vision. A hope filled vision that is marked by courage. That is marked by love. And that's marked by a faithfulness in our suffering.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We can't do this on our own, God. We need your Holy Spirit. So would you do that work in us now, we pray. In Jesus name, amen. I wanna take a moment to say thank you to each one of you who took time out of your day to watch this sermon from wherever you might be.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You might be at a gym, you might be at home, you might be in a car. Wherever you are, you're probably not with us. And so it means the world to us that you would take time to be a part of what God is doing here at Sandals Church. I also want to encourage you that the cost of following Jesus comes with a great reward. And so when we have moments like this where I invite you to give, we give not out of hopelessness, but we give out of hope knowing that everything we contribute back to God's work comes back to us tenfold, a hundredfold.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so I give not out of compulsion. I call you to give not out of compulsion, but out of hope today. And so if what we have shared, if the ministry of Sandals Church is blessing you, I wanna invite you to support that work. To do so, can go to sandalschurch.com/support. Grace and peace.