Intro: 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: Hey, guys. Welcome to Sandals Church. We are in a series called Miracles, and I wanna talk today about how to experience the miracle that Jesus has for me. I just wonder if you thought about that. What what is the dynamic healing that God wants to do in your life?
Every single one of us that's a Christian has Jesus in our hearts, and we have the healer in our lives. Now I don't know what he's gonna do. I don't know what he will do, but I believe that he wants to do something in your life, whether it's an emotional healing, a physical healing, maybe it's a generational healing. Maybe Jesus wants to break some generational curses with alcoholism, with drug addiction, with divorce. I got a friend of mine.
He comes from 13 divorces on both sides of his family. He and his wife are the only marriage that survived. Jesus broke that marriage curse. What does Jesus wanna do in your life today? So in the book this week, I challenge you, if you're following online, to read chapter 9 of Everyday A Miracle.
And in chapter 9, I talk about the complex reality of healing. And so I want that to be in the back of your mind. If you haven't got the book yet, get it. Read that chapter. Because here's the thing, not everyone gets a miracle.
Not everyone understands healing. Even doctors, listen to me, call it medical, what, practice. They're practicing on you. Just remember that the next time they're giving you a shot. Okay?
They're practicing on you, and you're walking out with your twitch. K? So even doctors don't understand the human body, because we are heart, soul, mind, and strength, Jesus says. Right? We are more than biological machines that many of you been taught we are in your colleges and universities.
So there is an aspect to us that we do not understand. And so I want you to press into that this week. If you're struggling, wrestling, God, why aren't you answering this prayer? Here's what I want you to be thinking. You know what you want Jesus to do.
Stop. I wonder what it is that Jesus wants you to do before you get your miracle. Okay? So let's just pray, and then we're gonna jump into this story that I absolutely love. Let's pray.
Father, would you just reveal to us today not what we're asking you to do, but what you're asking us to do. God, we just want to see miracles in our marriages, in our hearts, in our lives, in our kids, in our homes. Lord, we wanna see miracles in our bodies, Lord, for those of us who are battling illness and disease. Lord, some of us are wrestling with chronic pain. God, I just pray that you would move today in us so that we would move in obedience.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now I love this story in John chapter 5. Remember we talked about when we launched this series, the first miracle at Cana in John, the gospel of John where Jesus turns water into wine. And that's what I'm hoping he's gonna do in some of your lives.
He's gonna turn your water into wine. My prayer today was, Lord, take this sermon. Right? It's the week after Easter. I'm a little dry.
And turn it from water into wine. You see, you're not the only one who needs the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit too. You need the Holy Spirit to hear the message. I need the Holy Spirit to preach the message.
So in John chapter 5 verses 1 through 9, it says, afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days inside the city near the sheep gate where the pool of Bethsaida was with 5 covered porches. Now I've been to this pool many, many times, been scared by bats one time, trying to get into one of the pools. There's a bunch of bats in the cave because the city of Jerusalem just keeps getting built up and up and up. So in Jesus' day, it's where he walked. In our day when we go there, it's about a 100 feet down.
That's literally how many times Jerusalem has been destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, rebuilt. It's part of the reason why the Middle East falls apart when there are earthquakes because they're not built on solid ground anymore. So I've been right where this is, and some of you are like, well, the Bible's made up. No. No.
No. We know exactly where this is. I've been there. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've walked around it.
I've kicked the soccer ball there with, a kid from Jerusalem. So I know this is a real place. Crowds of sick people, blind, lame, or paralyzed, they lay on the porches. And you can see the porches today, the porticoes, the arches where the Romans built this so that the water would flow flow freely. 1 of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years.
And let me just say this, how long are you gonna be sick before you ask Jesus to do a miracle? One of the things that breaks my heart as a Christian is when I see Christians turn to anyone, everyone, and everything but Jesus for their miracle. You'll run all around the world spending all kinds of money but you won't turn to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he knew that he had been ill for a long time. Like we've all seen people.
There's a difference between someone who's just initially wrestling with the disease, and and then there's a difference between someone who's had it for a long time. This guy's been sick for almost 4 decades. Think about that. No medicine, no MRIs, no x rays, you know, literally just surgeons and doctors guessing, and it was more witchcraft back then than it was medicine. And oftentimes, the doctors did more harm than good in those days.
So he's struggling. Right? Jesus saw him and he could tell, you've been ill for a long time and he asked a very very strange question. Would you like to get well? Would you like to get well?
And let me ask you that. Do you wanna get well? Because some of you like being sick. Some of you would rather complain than be a miracle. And that's just the truth.
Some of us like the attention our negativity brings rather than the healing that Jesus could bring. You can become addicted to sickness. And some of you grew up in homes like this where you only get attention if something's wrong, where you only get love if you're sick. And so here's the thing is Jesus Christ did not die on the cross for you to stay sick. He died on the cross for you to get well.
Would you like to get well? And I just want you to pray through that this week. Do I really wanna get well? Because here's the truth, sometimes healing hurts. Now I've had 8 knee surgeries, 4 in the left knee, 4 in the right knee.
That's a lot of surgeries. And I can tell you that the hardest part of my healing was not the surgery, it was always the rehab. And everything in my body said don't move it. The doctor said if you don't move it, you lose it. And you gotta push through the pain.
You gotta break the scar tissue. Do you do you hear that? You gotta break through the scar tissue. And here's the thing, this is where so many of you stop in your healing. As soon as it hurts, you stop and you go, Jesus, why aren't you healing me?
And Jesus is saying, why don't you trust me and work through this pain? Would you like to get well, sir? Listen to what he says. I can't. Jesus didn't ask him what he could do.
He asked him what he wanted. The sick man said, For I have no one to put me into the pool. When the water bubbles up, someone always gets there ahead of me. Now according to legend, here's what people believed in Jerusalem, that angels from time to time would stir the water, and the first person that got into the pool would be healed. So not only did this man need to get in there, he had to get in there first.
But he's paralyzed. He's battling disease. He has no one to help him up. Amen. But here's the thing, he's looking for the wrong baptismal pool.
Today's baptism Sunday and that's where some of you guys or baptism Saturday if you're at the Saturday night service, That's where some of you guys are. You're baptizing yourself in the wrong pool over and over and over again. And Jesus is saying, come to me. And Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your mat and walk. Amen.
That's my favorite verse to quote to Tammy when she won't leave a party. Arise, pick up your mat and go. Amen? Let's go. I just quoted the word of God.
Instantly, instantly, the man was healed. You see, when Jesus moves, nothing stops it.
Anonymous: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: He rolled up his sleeping mat and he began walking. Here's what I wanna challenge you today. Stop believing in everything but Jesus. Come on. Yeah.
Come on. Amen, ladies? Essential oils? Come on. You know what's essential?
Jesus, that's essential. Now I'm not saying essential oils don't occasionally work, but some of you, you study essential oils like the Bible, and you ignore the Bible like it's some oil. And then so many young people today, you call yourself a Christian, you're more into crystals than you are Christ. Oh, look what I got around my neck. It's so healing.
Let me show you the power of your crystal. Give it to me. I'm a throw it at you, and you're gonna feel its force. Listen to me. It's a rock.
Now it's a pretty rock, but it's a rock. Maybe you should put down your crystal and trust in the real rock today. And that's Jesus. And many Christians today, I don't wanna pick on anybody, but some of you go and get your palm read. Let me tell you something.
Your hands don't reveal anything. Your hands don't change anything. Your hands don't show you anything, but the hands of Jesus can heal you. But you just go, oh, tell me what this little crease means. Tell me what this wrinkle means.
Nothing. It means you need lotion. Amen? That's what it means. Put some lotion on those things.
And then we got some Christians say and again, I know I'm picking on you, but you're all into your horoscope. So that's what people say in the in the lobby. Oh my gosh. I'm a counselor too. This is what the Bible says.
The heavens reveal the glory of God, not your future. It reveals His glory. It doesn't reveal anything about you. You see that's the problem with our culture. We've made everything, including the heavens about us.
And the Bible says, the heavens declare his glory, not your future, not your past. And here I got good news for you. You are not trapped in the stars. You are trapped in your own disobedience and your unwillingness to rise and walk. Well, I can't do it.
I'm a Sagittarius. And now I'm gonna get real personal. Anybody's mama use Vicks Vapor Rub for everything? Come on. Some of you guys were baptized in Vicks.
Your mama chased you, put it all over you on your face, on your chest. Some of your moms put it on your feet, then put a sock over it so you would die in the middle of the night. There are some things, mamas, Vicks can heal, but Jesus can. Jesus can. And somebody had really weird parents that, like, gave you vodka.
Drink this, son, you're 4. It'll heal. Woah. Crowds of sick people, crowds, blind, lame, or paralyzed lay on the porches. But here's the thing.
None of these people know Jesus, but you do. But you do. But you're still lying by the wrong pool. And some of you today, you're hoping that everyone else will change. Jesus is hoping you'll change.
One of the men had been lying there sick for 38 years. How long are you gonna suffer before you ask Jesus to heal you? Listen to this. You say, well, I haven't received a miracle. Oh, if you know Jesus, you have.
First Corinthians 124 out of the message translation, but to us who are personally called by God himself. Listen to this. Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Listen to me. If you have Jesus, you already have a miracle.
Every day is a miracle when you know Jesus personally. So stop looking for your healing and your miracle in everything but Jesus, in everything but Jesus. And if you're a medical professional today, I challenge you, read the book. One of the things I talk about is how the medical community, they just see us as lab rats. And if you can just get our chemicals right, we'll be right.
But here's the thing, we are not just chemicals. We are creatures created in the image of God and we reflect him. And if you're a doctor or you're a nurse or you're a PA or whatever else, and you are not treating the soul, you are not seeing the spirit, listen to me. You are not gonna bring healing to people's lives. See the whole person.
Next, if you wanna experience your miracle, stop seeing yourself as a victim. Stop. Our culture loves to be the victim. Everybody's a victim. It's never your fault.
No matter what happened, right, we are allergic to responsibility in our culture. But here's the thing, you can change your life far more than you think you can. But some of you are waiting today for your circumstances to magically change. Let me tell you what changes circumstances. You do.
You do. Jesus says, would you like to get well? I can't. He didn't ask him what he could do. He asked him what he wanted to do.
Would you like to get well? You say, well, Pastor Matt, I've been to rehab 3 times. Listen. Would you like to be well? Pastor Matt, we've been to counseling and my marriage isn't working.
I didn't ask you what you could do. I said, would you like your marriage to be well? Pastor, my kids, I just I don't understand my kids. I didn't ask you what you can do. Would you like to be well?
And some of us are so in our victim mentality, we're missing our victory in Christ. He says, for I have no one to put me in the pool. You are standing next to the one who created the ocean, bro. He doesn't need a doughboy. He needs you to pay attention to who he is.
He is the one who's measured the amount of water in the ocean. He says someone always gets there ahead of me. Do you see what his focus is on everybody else but Jesus?
Anonymous: Listen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: We love as a world to say, your gender holds you back. Listen. If you're with Jesus, nothing holds you back. We love to be in a world that says it's always, it's always your race, your ethnicity. That's always what's holding you back.
Listen to me. Not with Jesus. Not with Jesus. Not with Jesus. And some of you say, well, I I don't have this gift or I don't have that talent.
It doesn't matter with Jesus. Listen to me, I'm a miracle and so are you. I'm a miracle and so are you. God has delivered me so many times. I'm a miracle and so are you.
Stop being a victim and start telling people, I'm a miracle. I'm a miracle. Because God can do anything. Anything. Romans 835.
You say, well, Pastor Matt, you don't know my family. You don't know my story. You don't know my troubles. You don't know my sorrows. Romans 835, the most beautiful chapter in the Bible.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Your alcoholic parents? Your abusive husband? A racist country? Who who?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness? You see in the ancient world, nakedness was an accident. Nowadays, it's like, woah, look at me. I'm making a statement. Shall nakedness or danger or sword?
No. Listen to this. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. You are a miracle. You've already won because of Jesus.
Start trusting him in that. And here's what most of us do. We constantly focus on what we didn't get rather than what we did get. As Christians, we all need to be glass half full people rather than half empty. Next, start asking Jesus specifically for what I need.
Would you like to get well? Would you like to get well? When's the last time you asked Jesus for a specific miracle? In the studio today, we have our Anaheim campus with us. And I was in a board meeting.
I said, I really feel like we need a campus in Orange County. Now Orange County, those of you know, is more expensive in the Inland Empire. Here's what I said to the board. I want a campus in Orange County, and I want it for free, and everybody laughed. And then we got our Anaheim campus.
Amen? For free. Yes. Yeah. Amen.
Here's what she's you're like, well, I did. That doesn't happen to me. Well, listen to Jesus until now you have not asked for anything in my name. I asked for a campus, for his kingdom, for his glory, in his name, and guess what? He delivered it.
They called us. They called us. Jesus says, ask and you'll receive and your joy will be complete. Now I don't know how he's gonna answer you but I know he will answer you. Amen.
I don't always get yeses. Now James tells us sometimes it's because when I ask as your pastor, I know this is hard for you to believe, I ask with selfish motives. My wife had better not amen that. But we all do this, right? We ask for things for selfish motives.
Sometimes, right, the very thing that we're asking God for is the very thing he's trying to deliver us from. But let me ask you, what do you need today? Write it down. My wife's been challenging me through this series. Like she's been saying, what miracle are you praying for during this series?
And and I gotta confess to you, I wasn't praying specifically. But I've been journaling. I found my old journal from, like, 15 years ago, and so I just picked it up again. I started journaling and I'm writing down, God, I want a miracle here. God, I wanna see a miracle here.
God, I wanna see you work in this, and I'm writing it down. Here's why you need to write it down because we forget answered prayers. All we remember is the ones that we think weren't answered. What is it about us that we are so fixated and memorize the no's and we forget with amnesia the yeses? So write them down.
You're not going to get a yes to everything you ask for. God's not a genie in a bottle. You don't command him. And he's he's not Santa Claus where if you're just good enough, you get what you ask for. He's God Almighty and he can do what he wants.
But as God Almighty, he said ask for what you want. And remember I said this in the book over and over and over. Every prayer is answered with yes, no, or wait. Yes, no, or wait. And here's the thing, on resurrection day when Christ returns, a lot of those things you thought were no's are gonna turn out to be yeses.
And God said yes. It just was a wait. Next, start doing what Jesus tells me to do. Remember what I said at the beginning of the message? Here's what I want you to focus on.
You're focused on what you want God to do. I want you to ask, say, what is he asking me to do? Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your mat, and walk. What happens if he doesn't? Is there a miracle?
We don't know because he was obedient. But if he refuses to do what God's asking him to do, does he receive what he wants God to do? So listen to me. The miracle is God's part. Obedience is my part.
So what is God asking me to do? Some of you guys, you want to you want to be healthy? What if God is saying get in shape? I mean for some of you, if God told you to walk, you'd be like, oh, I can't do that. I can't do that.
It cracks me up. I was at the gym this week. I saw my buddy pull up in this huge lifted beautiful truck and he parks in the handicapped spot. I'm like, first of all, if you're handicapped, do you need to be driving a lifted truck? Is that is that, you know, I don't mean to judge but I'm just gonna say, is that the wisest decision?
You know, jumping out of your vehicle every day? And I go, what are you what are you doing parking in this spot? And he's like, well, I had neck surgery. I was like, okay. Let's just stop there.
You just drove to the gym. The purpose of the gym is to exercise. So does it make sense to park as close as you possibly can because you don't wanna walk before you work out? What is wrong with us? I mean, think about what you do.
I mean, some of you show up to church, like, oh, I gotta walk to church? I'm going home today. I'll watch online. God forbid, I used my body that he's given me. Next, start eating better.
Start eating better. And I and I know I I I'm a food judger. I judge everybody backstage. You know, they put out donuts and I'm just watching who's gonna eat it. Who's gonna eat it?
Do you know what a doughnut is? It's created by the devil. K? So it's carbs deep fried in fat, doused in sugar. K.
That's like a cigarette dipped in gasoline, rolled in dog poop. Right? Set on fire by the devil. And you're like, oh yeah, I'll have one of these. And you guys are eating those every day going, I don't know why the Lord won't heal me.
And the Lord's like, I don't know why you eat that. Start eating better. Some of you need to go to counseling. Work through your issues. It's okay.
It's okay. Why don't we do this? Why don't we take care of our bodies? Why aren't we more serious about our part of hell? Arise and walk.
No, Lord, you do it all. You do everything. I want to stay lazy and out of shape and I want you to fix me. Couple of months ago, I was driving to Sandals Church and this Lamborghini goes zipping by me. And I mean, this thing was just straight sexy.
Let's just be honest. You know, I drive a car like that, but you'd all start stop giving. Amen? You know what I'm saying? So and I I've already picked my license plate.
It says faster, pastor. That's what it says. Yeah. You know? And so I'm following this Lamborghini, and this thing is gorgeous.
Right? It's gorgeous. And I'm falling behind it, and I'm going to work at at Central Church Hunter Park. And and I'm and I'm following it, and every turn I'm making, he's making. And, you know, I'm not trying to, like, keep up, because I'm in a truck, and it would just be embarrassing.
But I'm I'm trying to keep up. You know? And so we're just zipping through. And finally, it turns into the church parking lot, and I pull in right next to it. And the guy jumps out, and I know him.
And I'm all, hey. I'm all, nice car. And then he opens the door. He's got a toddler in the front seat and a car seat. I'm like, you put you put your kid in a Lamborghini in a car seat?
He's, like, yeah. He loves it. I was, like, I wish my dad would have loved that. That would have been cool. You know?
And literally, this is what our church member says. He he holds the keys and he says, you wanna drive it? Now I would love, I would love to own a Lamborghini. I do not wanna drive someone else's Lamborghini. Do you know why?
I'm afraid I would crash it. And if you're like, that's so dumb, you've never been in a fast car. Like, you can't finance these things. You gotta pay cash for them because people crash them driving them out of the dealership. Because basically, the space shuttle with wheels, that's where the thing is.
And he's like, no. No. Seriously, pastor. He's all, you can drive it. And he goes, anytime you want, you can drive it.
And I was like, oh, no. No. No. And here's the thing. You know why?
I don't wanna wreck his car because it's a beautiful, amazing car and it's not mine. Some of you don't realize what your body is. It's beautiful, amazing, not a car, but it is your earth vehicle. Amen? And some of our models are more sporty than others.
I will say that. I will just say some of us got a minivan and some of us got a Lamborghini. That's all I'm saying. But here's the thing. One day, you're gonna stand before God and be held accountable with the body he loaned you.
And here's why I don't wanna drive my friend's car because I don't wanna bring him back a crumpled up piece of tinfoil. Here you go. But that's what some of you are gonna hand the Lord on judgment day. And I destroyed my body. I didn't take care of it, and I didn't see its value.
Now here's the thing. You say, well, Pastor Matt, I'm not a Lamborghini. You don't know what you are. First Corinthians 6 19, the apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth, they forgot who they were. He says, don't you realize that your body is the temple?
Now we don't get this. Okay? We don't understand this. When we think of temples, we think of, you know, that's not God. I'm about a relationship.
I mean, we got all this Christian jargon where we just dismiss what the temple was. Let me tell you what the temple was. The temple was an interdimensional space where heaven and earth touched. That's what it was. K?
We don't know where heaven is, but it's not far, far away. Somehow, it's in a different dimension and it's closer than we realize, but we can't see it. And so God has created things where we can interact with him through the ark of the covenant through excuse me. Through the ark of the covenant, through the tabernacle, or through the temple where we can enter act with God. And it is the temple where the spirit of God dwelled.
And Paul says, don't you realize as a Christian, your body is the temple of God. It is the place where the Holy Spirit dwells. You are not just a Lamborghini. You are so much more than that because you are not full of gas, although some of you are. You are full of God's spirit.
Listen, and you do not belong to yourself. Wow. What if you started treating your body today like it was the place where heaven and earth met? What if you started caring about your body like I cared about my friend's Lamborghini? What is God calling you to do?
What's a Lamborghini's purpose? To go fast. What's your purpose? To serve. So why aren't you serving?
Why aren't you serving? For 38 years, the man in this story, he was surrounded by the wrong baptismal pool. Some of you have called yourself Christians for over 38 years. You've never been baptized. What are you doing?
It's time to take a dip today. Today is the 1st day of obedience. Do you have to be baptized to be a Christian? No. Do you do you have to be baptized to be an obedient Christian?
Yes. Yes. And Christians say the dumbest things. Like, forgive me for a second, but I was on TikTok this week, and I heard this dude, he's got more followers than me. And this is what he was saying.
I don't have to go to a church to be a part of the church. Do you know how dumb that is? Yes. Yes, you do. To be a part of the church, you need to go to a church because a church is a part of the church.
And this guy's got like a 100000 likes, and all these Christians are like. I don't have to get baptized. I have the spirit of God. Jesus got baptized. Jesus, What's your problem?
He didn't even need it. And you got baptized by John wearing no underwear, you know, like like a animal cloak, eating bugs. Don't tell me it's weird John the Baptist baptized him in the dirty creek of the Jordan River. Next, some of you, man, the Lord is telling you just relax. Relax.
You're not a Lamborghini. You need to become a Volkswagen bus and just chill. Just chill, you know? You're not getting anywhere fast. God knows it.
Just relax. Next, for some of you tell you know what God wants to say to you? Could you just be more positive? What if you talk to people the way you talk to yourself? Here's what I want you to do.
If you're a parent, I want you to play out the conversation you would have with your kids kids that you have with yourself. You're so dumb. You're so ugly. You don't matter. Like all these conversations that we have, the Lord is saying, look, man, stop being a victim and start being more positive and start looking for the good things in your life.
Remember a couple weeks ago, I said, we find what we're looking for. We find what we look it for, what we look for. Next, can I just say, I love you, but don't expect everyone to celebrate your miracle? Like, if you win the lottery, you're probably losing more friends than you get. You know?
John 5:9 through 10, at once, the man was cured. He picked up his mat and he walked. The day on which this took place was the Sabbath. And so the Jewish leaders, right, these are people that are supposed to represent God. Right?
They're supposed to get excited when God moves, when God does something, and yet they're the biggest critics of what God did. And so the Jewish leader said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath, and the law forbids you to carry a mat. Can I just tell you something? Dysfunction loves dysfunction. It loves it.
It loves it. When Tammy and I were serving, in Huntington Beach, we had a youth night. We had 100 and 100 of kids come to a youth night for a church that was a couple hundred people. We saw and then the truth is I don't remember how many salvations. You know, 40, 50, 60, 70 salvations.
It was more salvations than that church would see in 5 or 6 years. And it was a Saturday night. I got called into the office on Sunday morning and reprimanded because somebody left pizza in a classroom. Yeah. And and here's what God was doing in my heart.
I wanna be a part of a church that celebrates salvation. Amen. Now I gotta pick up the pizza. I didn't know it was there. Junior high kids don't tell you where they stuff pizza, you know.
They're not like, Pastor Matt, I put it behind the bibles. But dysfunction loves dysfunction. And that church today is still shrinking. Still shrinking. The best facility in Huntington Beach, getting smaller and smaller every year.
Do you know why? They care more about getting it religiously right than they care about reaching people. Can I just tell you, sandals, we don't do everything right? We try. We care about reaching people.
Amen. And that is always going to be messy. It's always going to be messy. Dysfunction loves dysfunction. Unhealth loves unhealth.
So if you're married and one of you wants to quit smoking, probably what needs to happen? You both need to. If one of you wants to quit drinking, guess what probably needs to happen? Both of you probably need to do it. Because what happens is the one who doesn't change will pull the one back who wants to change.
And listen to me. If you're a young person today and all your friends are not Christian, guess what you need to do for a period of time? You need to change your friend group because you will not be a witness for Jesus. You'll be a witness of another almost Christian casualty, and you'll get pulled back and sucked back in to the old life that Jesus just died on the cross to deliver you from. And let me say this in closing, this is the last point.
I don't know if God's gonna do a miracle for you in this series, but if he does, if God in his infinite wisdom and glory decides to manifest a miracle for you, can I just beg you? Don't waste the miracle that God gives you. What what why on earth would would God give you a miracle for you to keep living your stupid life? I believe God would give you a miracle so that you would change your life. I was texting with a friend of mine that almost died over Christmas.
Matter of fact, when the text messages came in, it looked grim. No response. He's coding. Doesn't look good. Doctors have very little hope.
Those are the text messages that are coming through. And then all of a sudden, I hear God's answering prayer. He's doing better. He's alive. And then a week later, I'm texting him and here's what I said to him.
I said, don't waste your miracle. And he text back, He did. And I text I said, no. Seriously. Because here's the thing, not everybody gets their dad back.
Not everybody's mom survives breast cancer. Listen to me, parents. Not every child makes it to adulthood. So if, by the grace of God, you get a miracle, let it change you. Let it change you.
And here's the thing, you would think that miracles change everybody. They don't. Not everybody who watched Jesus Feed the 5,000 believed. Not everybody who watched Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead believed. Matter of fact, when you read it in John 11, some of the people that day that day said, okay, we really gotta kill him now.
Can you imagine? That's how hard life can make our hearts. I mean, they they crucified Jesus because he had the audacity to heal, to love, to save, and to raise people from the dead. We can't have any of that around here. You know what a lot of churches are really afraid of?
The same thing a lot of Christians are truly afraid of. You know what that is? A real movement of Jesus. It's a real movement. Man, Tammy and I, I think we're the last 2 Christians on earth to watch the Jesus revolution.
We finally watched it and it was great. It was great. My life has personally been changed by pastor Greg Laurie, personally. But I'm so grateful for Pastor Chuck Smith that he was willing to receive dirty, gross, weirdo, hippies. And that's the people that God used to start the Jesus movement.
Not the prim and proper pastors from Yale and Harvard. Not the Presbyterian ministers in their robes with their decadence and their reverence. He he used women with hairy armpits. I know. Take that in.
He used un bathed men. My favorite scene in that movie is when Chuck Smith washes the dirty, ugly feet of every hippie that walked into his church because the members were complaining they were ruining the carpet. What would happen, sandals, if we just said, God, move. Move in our lives. Move in our hearts.
Move in our church, move in our church. It breaks my heart every time I meet a Christian that criticizes sandals. Well, you guys show church on video. I don't know if you guys know this, but the fastest growing denomination in our country is nones. They have no faith.
They go to no church. They believe nothing. And the church is saying, God forbid, you guys are broadcasting the message. I just want people to meet Jesus. And there aren't enough churches and there aren't enough Christians and people aren't getting saved.
And so what are we doing as a church? We're criticizing each other for how we're trying to reach the very few people that are responding. Man, think about what God would do if instead of criticizing each other, we celebrated. That's great. That's great.
I'm so glad people are actually going to church. John 5 12 through 14. So they asked him, who is this fellow who told you to pick up and walk? And the man who is healed had no idea. He's like, I don't know.
Do you know why? Because he was so focused on himself, he missed who it was that healed him. For Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. And later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, listen, see, you are well again, but listen to this, Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. Oh, man.
Miracles come with warnings. Change your life because there's something worse than physical suffering. It's called an eternity apart from God. Man, today is baptism Sunday and we need to celebrate baptism Saturday. We need to celebrate what God is doing at our church.
Do you know that most churches didn't have 70 people in church on Sunday? We had over 700 give their lives to Christ for the first time. Amen? And we need to celebrate that. We need to celebrate that.
We need to cheer that. Some of you today, you need to walk in obedience. You gave your life to Christ last week and this weekend, you need to walk in obedience. And praise God, you came to church, but you need to walk in obedience and you need to get baptized. Because what we need is all of us cleansed, and that's what baptism represents.
Look. I love you, Sandals Church, and I'm praying for you. Don't miss your miracle because you're focused on everything and anything but Jesus. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, in the name of Jesus, we pray and we ask, lord, that you would deliver us from the spirit of victimhood, that you would deliver us from the spirit of negativity, that you would deliver us, Lord, from this culture of criticism and you would allow us to see you, to hear you, and respond to you.
Lord, in the name of Jesus, if we hear arise and walk, I pray that that's exactly what we do today. We pray this in Christ's name and all God's people said, amen.
Anonymous: Thank you so much for joining us for service today. Hey. I just wanna let you know we saw thousands of people last weekend join us for Easter just like you. And so I wanted to take a minute just to invite you to consider if you made a first time decision to follow Jesus, I personally would love to know that and to help you take your next step as you begin to follow him with the rest of your life. And, also, if you would like to get baptized, our team here at Sandals Church online wants to help facilitate to make that happen however we can.
So, again, reach out to me personally. My email is alfredoramos@sandalschurch dotcom, and I would love just to meet you to hear your story and help you take your next step as you follow Jesus. And as always, this is made possible because so many of you guys choose to support and give to the work that God is doing in and through Sandals Church. And so I'd love to invite you to do that now. You can go to give dotsc.
Grace and peace.