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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 Tim Walker, and I'm the campus pastor at Sandals Church Woodcrest. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this incredible message. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach even more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hi, and welcome to Sandals Church, and welcome back to our first service in 2026. Can I get an amen? Woo hoo. Man, I'm so glad that you're starting off the New Year in church, and this is so important. Man, there's no better time to change your life than at the first of the year.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's such a beautiful thing. Cultures across the world celebrate this. We have New Years in America. There's the Chinese New Year. But specifically, you know, New Years is at a different time in the Bible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hebrews celebrate, you know, New Years more in the fall than when we do in January, but they call it Rosh Hashanah. And I want you to think about this. You know, Hashanah literally means year, but Rosh is the first or it's literally the word for head. So when a little kid learns how to say new or first, they point to this and they say Rosh. And so I want you to think about this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is a great time for you to change your life, and you do that by changing the way you think. And this is so and so important. And so this is the way that we change our lives at Sandals Church. We don't, you know, think about my thoughts or we don't study some book or or some human beings ideas, but we go to the word of God and we trust what it says and what Jesus says. And this is how we change our lives.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We listen to his teachings and his truth and we apply it to our lives. Now, we're just gonna look at four verses today and I I think these verses are gonna set you free if you really think about what this means. So let's open our bibles to Matthew chapter 18 verses 10 through 14 and let's look at these together. So let's look up here on the screen if you don't have your bibles. Let's let's look at this first word beware.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know what twenty twenty six is gonna be for you, but we need to think about this. We gotta we gotta be careful about this. Jesus says, beware that you don't look down on any of these little ones. Are you talking about children? He says, for I tell you that in heaven, their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly father.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says, and if a man has a 100 sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, he says, I tell you the truth. He will rejoice over it more than the 99 that didn't wander away. In the same way Jesus says, is not my heavenly is it not my heavenly father's will that even not not even one of these little ones should perish.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And this is beautiful right here. He just talks about the fact that he rejoices in heaven when that happens. So if you wanna change your life, if you really wanna be different, if you wanna help change the world, number one, write this down. I've got to see the value of people through the eyes of Jesus. It's really easy for me to judge politically.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? If I'm a democrat, republicans. If I'm a republican, I judge democrats. Right? We judge their values, their motives, their reasons, and we divide people in our country more and more.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And by the way, this is happening across nations. When I was in Korea, that's one of the things that they said that the divide is political now. Not just religious, but political. We divide politically. We divide sexually like gay or straight.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We divide ethnically like black, white. And what Jesus is saying is, listen, you make you need to make sure that you see people the way I do. Jesus radically changed the way that the world sees religion. We just take it for granted that you can, you know, be above any ethnicity and be a part of a religion. In Jesus' day and age, right, if you were Jewish, you were primarily from Judea.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? If you were from, you know, if you were Zoroastrianism, which we talked about on Christmas Eve, then you were primarily from the nation that we called Iran, Persia. And so gods were city worship or gods were nation worship and they were very very ethnically driven. And Jesus says, we gotta stop looking at people that way and we've got to see the value of people. And so he starts in his own culture.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:His own culture didn't see the value of children. Children were not considered fully human until their bar mitzvah. Think about that. At 12 years old, that's when they became under the commandments. And Jesus says, no, no, bring a little child to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:One who hasn't yet submitted themselves to God. This person has value. And we need to think about that because it's really easy to judge. And if you don't think you judge, man, I'm telling you, you do it all the time. I I do it all the time.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And when I catch myself, I say, Lord, help me to stop judging. Help me to stop judging. How many of you guys judge the way people drive? Come on. Like, I I'm like literally this internal referee.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, I'm a part time police officer that never gets paid. I write you a ticket, you a ticket, hope you get a ticket. Now, I don't want a ticket, but I I'm just constantly judging the way people drive. And the truth is I don't know what's going on in their life. I don't know where they came from.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know where they're going. I don't know what's happened. But boy inside, man, I get really judgmental. And we do this all the time. Jesus says, beware.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matthew eighteen ten. Look at this. Beware that you don't look down on any of these little ones. And so I would just ask you, if you wanna change your life, who are the little ones in your life? Who are the people that you ignore?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Who are the people that you dismiss? Who are the people that you tear down? Jesus wants you to value humanity the way that he does. He loves the whole rock, the whole earth, and all of the people in it are the ones that he came to save, and this is radically different. And then Jesus says something, he says, for I tell you for I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly father.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is where we get this idea of guardian angels. And here's what Jesus is saying, is oftentimes the people that we see of the least importance are the people that are closest to God. Now all of us, we rank importance of people. Right? We rank how they dress.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We'd rank the the the clothes they wear, the cars they drive. We rank the importance of people, but listen to me, God does not. This is radical to Christianity. This is what sets Christianity extremely I mean, more than any other rich religion apart from every other religion. It's radical.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And the apostle Peter literally has to get hit over the head with the gospel in the book of acts to realize this. In the book of acts chapter 10 verses 34, Jesus says, excuse me, Peter says one of the most important phrases that needs to echo in our minds this year. Acts ten thirty four, then Peter replied, I see very clearly that God shows how much favoritism? No favoritism. And what Peter is talking about here is ethnic favorites.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So this idea that God loves the Jewish people more than all other people. No. No. No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God chose the Jewish Jewish people to reach all the nations. That was why God did it. And this is echoed in the letter to the Romans. Look at Romans two verse 11. God has how many favorites?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No favorites. So here's what it means. If you're Jewish, I love you. God loves you. But even you have to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All of us are the same. There is equality at the foot of the cross. God shows no favoritism, listen to me, ethnically or economically. And so that's the way the world divides people up, ethnically and economically. And the Bible, the scriptures specifically speak against that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And that's why again, I'm gonna challenge you guys towards the end to get into discipleship group. Not with all your friends, not with people who look like you or people who can afford like you, but people who are gathering together to study God's word to learn about God. What brings us together is not what we have in common. What brings us together is Jesus. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that's one of the ways to change your life. The world loves to gather with friends. The church gathers with the faithful. Okay? Next, you wanna change your life, celebrate spiritual victories no matter how small.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? I mean, this year you may have no spiritual victories. So if you get a little one, let's celebrate it. Let's get excited about it. I mean, celebrate everything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We celebrate graduations, we celebrate New Years, we celebrate birthdays. When you get to my age, you're like, let's not celebrate this. Don't tell anybody. Let's stop counting. But we need to learn to celebrate spiritual victories.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is so important because the devil's gonna beat you up every day. And that's why you need to celebrate when God wins in your life. Matthew eighteen thirteen, Jesus says this, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the 99 that didn't wander away. So Jesus is talking about the importance of people. Don't even dismiss children and don't dismiss the person who's abandoned God and and ran away.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And for some of you that was 2025 and now it's 2026 and you're back. Praise God. We're not here to judge you. We're here to celebrate you. We're here to inspire you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're here to equip you to make sure that 2026 is different than 2025. Can I get an amen? It's important. Listen, if we can celebrate your kid's preschool graduation, what are we doing? Like we we I mean, when I was a kid, know, like it was high school and that was it, then it was junior high, and then it was elementary school, then it was kindergarten, now it's preschool.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, pretty soon your kid's gonna read a book and we have to have a party. You know what I'm saying? Look, if we can celebrate the small event and does anybody flunk preschool? I don't know. Maybe you did, send me an email.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I'm just saying, if we can celebrate preschool graduation, we can celebrate your spiritual graduations. Amen? One of my favorite moments at Sandals Church years ago, and and and when Sandals first started, man, we were raw, we were real, and people would just confess stuff. It was powerful. And by the way, that's where real with others comes in.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I remember this guy came to church, I was standing in the lobby at Cal Baptist when we used to meet in the gym. And he goes, high five. And I was like, great. And he goes, I didn't look at porn all week. That's how he greeted his minister when he came to church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you know what I said, praise God. I gave him a high five. You know, those were small moments in his life. And for some of you, man, you gotta celebrate that. And here's the thing, we shouldn't just let alcohol and Alcohol Anonymous a a, we shouldn't just let them celebrate small victories.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? One week sober, one month sober, one year sober. I mean, when Tammy and I first got married, her dad's sobriety was a bigger deal than his birthday. I'm not kidding you. We had a bigger party for when he got sober than we did for when he was born.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because when he got sober it changed his life. It changed my wife's life. It changed the trajectory of their family's life. And that's what spiritual decisions do. They get you off the wrong path and they put you on the right path.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now how many you guys have either been baptized or seen a baptism at Sandals Church? Okay. Most of you. But I got to do baptisms a couple weeks ago at Sandals Church, and it was awesome. The first guy was a guy that just found me in the parking lot after I I preached literally at a message like that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He found me in the parking startled me. He's like, pastor, I need to get baptized. I was like, okay. As long as you're not gonna murder me or kill me, we can talk about it. But you know what he recognized?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He recognized that his life needed to change and he couldn't wait for Sunday. Ain't that crazy? He wasn't gonna wait for Sunday. He said, I need to change right now, right here in our youth pastor at the Hunter Park campus, led him to Christ. Let's give him a hand for that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? Come on. So so here's what I told him. I said, I'll meet you on Sunday because you need to come to church. If you're really gonna change your life, you need to follow that up with action.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, I'll meet you after the 11:45 service at Hunter Park. He came. I got to baptize him. And then there was a whole strew of other people that I got to baptize that wanted to get dunked with him. It was amazing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I remember one woman in particular. And here's one of the reasons, man, you wanna become a disciple maker. You wanna lead somebody to Christ and you wanna see, you want a front row seat to seeing God change somebody's life. She stepped into the water and she was shaking. Now at first, I just thought she was nervous or worried she was gonna slip as she stepped into the baptismal pool.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But as she sat down, I said, are you nervous? And she said, no. I'm not nervous. She said, I'm overwhelmed. She said, I can't believe what God has done in my life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And she looked at me with tears in her eyes shaking with joy. She said, Jesus Christ has changed my life. Amen? And I'm looking out there and her kids are out there. Her kids, her family, and they're all celebrating.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then I got so excited I dunked her. We both got wet. We both got soaked. We both got dunked, but it was awesome. I was right there.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't even care. I'm like, you know what? This is great. But here's what we've gotta learn to do. We gotta learn to celebrate God's goodness even when life is not good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I wrote this point and I gotta tell you something funny. I sat down to write this message and I could not find my computer. Now you say, well, why is that a problem? Because all of my commentaries, all of my books of the Bible are on my computer. My Greek lexicon is on my on my computer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:All my tools to research and study the scripture to tell you about God's word are on my computer and I could not find it. And that was my wife's fault. I'm telling you. Not true at all. But here's the thing, I lose it, she helps me find it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I get an amen? So I always tell her, we've got a problem. She's like, what is I've lost something. I need you to go find it. And she hunted everywhere, we looked everywhere, and I couldn't find it anywhere.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I had to write this whole message without any of my tools. We gotta celebrate God's goodness even when life is not good. Look, here's a verse, Psalm one eighteen twenty four. Look at this. This is the day the Lord has made.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It may not be the day you wanted made, but it is the day that he made and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Amen? Amen. Now, you don't know this watching, but this whole group had to wait thirty minutes because it wasn't enough. The Lord was like, you know what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We need to really impress upon you that you need to celebrate when things don't go your way. So it wasn't enough that I lost my computer. On my way to the studio audience, there had to be an accident on the freeway. And I was literally listening to this song, I surrender all. And I was like, I'm not surrendering to traffic, Lord.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm not I'm not doing it. And I lost my mind. Ain't that funny? I lost my mind. I I mean, of you lose your minds listening to worship music in your car and you're literally worshiping and sitting in the same song.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's what's so sad. Do you wanna know why I was late for this message? Because somebody got hurt on the freeway and I forgot about that. And as I drove around and maps rerouted me, I got back on the freeway, I could see the sirens. And here's the thing, what's more important, me getting here or the ambulances getting to those people?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And God had to reframe my attitude to make this message better. Listen to me, you cannot choose the day, but you can always choose your attitude. Amen? Let me say that again, you cannot choose the day, but you can always choose your attitude. This is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I may not want to be in it, but I am in it and I'll control my attitude. Amen? Alright. Celebrate God when we gather for worship. Now this is huge.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you you're like, well, just get to the message. Just get to the message. Well, you're not ready for the message. We need worship to get you ready for the message. And that's the thing is some of you guys, well, it's just about Jesus and God's word.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, no. No. You're not ready for Jesus or his word. Listen to Psalm ninety five one through two. I I picked the message translation because I think this is awesome.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Come. Let's shout praises to God. Raise the roof for the rock. Come on now. Can I get a what what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Raise the roof. Yeah. Raise the roof.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It cracks me up. You know, Sandals Church, we we have 14 campuses and and sometimes, you know, we've taken over, you know, old facilities, great churches built in the fifties and sixties. But because of time and the ethnic trans transition of the community, they've not reached out their community and so they've partnered with us for various reasons, but always cracks me up. In like three old Baptist churches, you wanna know what I found? Praise hands.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then you're like, what is that? It is literally a glue stick with a hand glued on it and so that's how you praise the Lord. You just you just when you're when you're feeling it and you're gonna raise the roof, just I mean, that's it. Like, mean, that's that's a Baptist going insane. That is a that's a Baptist mosh pit right there.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's what that is. It's like, but why is that? Why is that that we're passionate about our football team, but we're not passionate about God's team? Let's go back. Let's look at that scripture.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It says, come on, let's shout praises to God. Raise the roof for the rock who saved us. Amen. Come on. It keeps going.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's march, right? Let's march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns. And you guys come in. At Hunter Park literally, I I'm in the back and I can see the Hunter Park people not worshiping as I get ready to come out there, and I watch them doing this, they're like No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We need to be raising the roof. We need to be getting excited. There should be more anticipation for the word of God than there should be for a Taylor Swift concert. Amen? Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing at a Taylor Swift concert to sit up front, gotta pay extra at sandals. It's free. So come early and be ready. Be ready. All you gotta do is show up early and you're on the front row.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You can be in a splash zone as I preach. Now let me say this. Some of you, you don't get it and that's okay. But you don't understand why music is important. All music has a message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everything you're listening to has a message. Whether you're conscious of it or not, it is speaking to you and it can lift your spirits or it can depress your spirits. And so if you're a young person, I would encourage you just sit down and read the words of your favorite songs. Are they uplifting or dehumanizing? What are they?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Would you want someone to sing this to your younger sister, someone to sing this to your younger brother, someone to sing this to your grandma? That's a good test. All music has a message. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't have a good beat. I'm not saying that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm just asking what is the message. Now more importantly, listen to me, all worship is war. Okay. The most famous watched, viewed movie of all time on Netflix, over 330,000,000 views. Think about that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Is a k pop movie called Demon Hunters. I'd never heard of it. I went to Korea and everybody's like, you watch Demon Hunters? I was like, I don't know what this is. I had no idea what it is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I actually talked to a couple of my friends in the Hollywood industry. I said, what is this? What do you think about this? Like, you gotta watch it. Now some people think it's Christian, some people think it's pagan, and because we're Christians we love to divide and hate each other for our opinions.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? So I'm not telling you to go watch it. Okay, parents? You gotta you gotta decide, gotta choose, you gotta pray about this. But as a pastor, I had to watch this because it is a cultural phenomenon.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now here's the thing that's amazing to me. Demon Hunters is this movie about three Korean girls that sing songs of praise to protect the nation of Korea from demons. Let me say that again. It's a movie about three Korean girls that sing songs of praise to protect the nation of Korea from demons. And here's the thing, guess what the devil uses, the king of demons.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He starts a boy band. I kid you not. It's like I knew it. I knew it. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Any any fathers of daughters, I knew it they were the devil the whole time. And he starts a boy band, listen to this, to absorb their souls. And it is literally a fight between what's good and what's evil. Now here's the thing, here's why worship is so important, because there's a battle that goes on every single weekend for your soul. And I don't know what you've been listening to all week long, but some of you come in here depleted and deflated and you need to be lifted up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And that's why worship is so important. And we need to come in here and we need to raise the roof and we need to sing songs so that people know when they come to church, amen, that there's a God here. Next, I gotta remind myself daily of my worth to Jesus. How many of you guys have days like this? Like you're up, you're down.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, that's me. Oh my gosh. I mean, I I the Lord just wired me differently. I'm just one of those people. I'm super excited.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm super low. I'm super up. I'm super down. And my wife's like super done. You know what I'm saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She's like, okay. Can we can we just relax? But but here's the thing. We have got to understand that we need daily time with God. Listen to what Jesus says in Luke twelve seven.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says in the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Even if you don't have any hair, he knows. He knows they're gone. So don't be afraid. You are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The message translates this way, a million of birds, millions of birds. You matter more to God. You are important. And here's the thing, every day when we get on TikTok, every day when we're on Instagram, every day when we're on social media, we don't feel loved, we don't feel seen, we don't feel special. But when we get in God's word, we're reminded.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're seen, we're loved, we're special. Here's what God is saying, the world may not see you, but I see you. The world may not know you, but I know you. The world may not care about you, but I care about you. The world may not love you, but I love you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? And you need that every single day. Here's one of the things I do and I've shared this with you this with you guys multiple times. Every single day when I read my bible, I write the date in it. I've been doing this now for about ten years.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because it helps two things. Number one, hold me accountable. I know when I haven't read my bible in a couple days. Because like we're all like, yeah, read the Bible every day. And then when you do it this way, like, oh, I miss some days.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I could also track my mood. When I'm out of God's word, guess where my mood goes? Down. When I'm in God's word, guess where my mood goes? Up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I've been telling my wife this and so like when I'm in a mood she'd like, did you read your bible today? You know, did you go go spend some time with God and then come back to us and bless us with your spiritual leadership? But listen to this, it's so important. I'm not saying this to beat you up, I'm saying this to lift you up. First Peter two nine and ten says this, but you are the chosen by God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Think just to stop there. You may have been overlooked by everybody but not by God. God is the one who chooses the unseen and the unpicked and the unloved. You were chosen by God. Look at this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You were chosen for the high calling of priestly work. Now let's stop there. Many of you grew up Catholic and I don't mean to put Catholicism down at all, but here is one of the major divisions between Catholicism and Protestant Protestantism. So we're a Protestant church and one of the major differences is the Catholic church believes that some are called to be a priest, Protestants believe that you're all, every single one of you are called to be priests. It is called the priesthood of believers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:K? It's not just somebody to be holy, somebody to be special. You're all called to be holy and you're all called to be special. You were all chosen by God and here's why. We have a priest, and his name is Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? And he's called all of us. Amen. So look at this. Chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him. That's our job. Our job is to reach the world for Christ. God has equipped you, called you, and chosen you to be an instrument of his grace for the world. Doesn't the world need more grace?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you are that instrument. So I wanna challenge you to build daily rhythms. Okay. The best way to do this is to download the Soundstreuch app. It's it's it's amazing and you can download the app and every single day there's a spiritual rhythm for you to open your Bible and to to think, to read and reflect.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now this next one is not rocket science, but it is so essential. Attend church every week. We have gotten so out of the habit since COVID. Across the board, church attendance is a down weekly is down 35 to 40%. Think about this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You need this every single week. And here's the thing, oftentimes the weeks you need God the most are the ones you miss. So think about that when you wake up. I don't feel like going to church today. Can I just be honest with you?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I never go to the gym because I feel like it. You know when I go to the gym when I know I need it. I know I need it. I work out not because I want to, I work out because I know I have to. And so part of being a disciple is living a disciplined life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And that's not easy, but it is the call. Last point and this is huge. Work hard not to wander away from Jesus. This is so important. So in this story, Jesus talks about children.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at Matthew eighteen twelve. He says, if a man is a 100 sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? So the focus of the story is on what God does. So God leaves the 99 and he goes after the one and he throws a party when he finds the one and we all say praise God and that's awesome and that's amazing. Why do you think that there's a party in heaven whenever one person repents and is found?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because not everybody is found. Not everybody is found. When I was a kid, you would go to the grocery store and when you bought milk, missing children were on milk cartons. It scared me to death. Like I was like, I'll go to the grocery store mom for anything, but not milk.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Remember that? And they would put their face on it like a prison photo. You know, they would put it on the carton of milk. And there would be a big news story whenever one of these kids were found, but you know, so many of them weren't. Let me say this, not everyone who wanders gets found.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so I just think there's there's kind of this laziness to spirituality is like, oh, I'll come back when I'm ready. Look, it's easy to wander and get lost. It's easy to wander and get lost. Proverbs seventeen twenty four, look at this verse. Sensible people, do we have many of those nowadays?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I think they're going extinct. Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth. What does the fool do? They wander. They never focus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What God has called you to do is not to be a fool, but to be wise. So here's what God's gonna do. God is gonna go after you, but here's the thing. Some of you are so stubborn and so pig headed, you're gonna wander your whole life and you will never be found. So let this be a year.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let this be a year where you come to church, you say, know what? I'm gonna go to church every single week. Okay? I I I'm gonna I'm gonna sit my butt in that seat and I'm gonna be there and I'm gonna open my Bible and it doesn't matter if pastor Matt's teaching or who's teaching because the person that I'm listening to and following his name is Jesus. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? And so so that's what I wanna challenge you to do is to just take this year seriously and say, know what? I'm gonna study God's word And I'm gonna be that person that's found. I'm gonna be that person that's found. I'm gonna be that person that's saved.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna be that person that comes back. And that's one of the things I could tell you as as as a person who's now been your pastor for almost thirty years. I can't believe that I'm saying that. I've watched people come and go, multiple times drift away and come back, drift away and come back, and then guess what happened? They drift away and they don't come back.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let this be the year where you focus. Let this be the year where you're glued to church. Let this be the year where you are consistent in your time with God. Okay? And amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So some of us would say this, say, well, you know what? I can spend time with God anywhere and you should and you should. But there's something unique about the gathered church And we need that. I need it. You need it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Psalm one nineteen nine through 10. Look at this. How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word. I have tried hard to find you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't let me wander from your commands. Listen to me young people. I I had this conversation with my son and he was just saying that he feels like people in my generation are critical of his generation. And I just said, hey, I'm sorry you feel that way. So if you're a young person, okay, and if you have to think about whether or not you're young, it's not you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what, the second you go, you've graduated to old. Listen, I wanna say I'm sorry. I do think it's harder today. I do. And old people, we need to stop being critical, and we need to start being helpful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's what I challenge them to do. I challenge them. I said, listen to me. Son, I get it. There's a lot of criticism and there's there's a there's a million opinions now on the Internet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's all over and it's hard to know what the truth is. Listen to the passage it says, keep myself focused on you, don't let me wander away. Listen to me young people, there's gonna be a lot of opinions this year. I don't know what's gonna happen this year, but I know this, the closer connected you are to Jesus, the better the year will be. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So how do we do this? How do we do this? To grow closer to Jesus by attending Sandals Church Connect. Let me encourage you to do that. Some of you guys need to know what do we believe?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What what are we about? How how do how do I connect to this big church? Listen to me, the church doesn't have to be big. The church can be as small as the relationships you have at this church. So let me encourage you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I want you to attend Sandals Church Connection. Like, don't know what that is. It's how you connect. That's what it is. You sit down with a couple of people, maybe one person, you just talk about, how do I become a part of this church?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because here's the thing, if nobody knows you, nobody will miss you. Let me say that again. If nobody knows you, nobody's gonna miss you. We're not gonna know you're not here. And it's important for you to be here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And it's important for you to get in some kind of group. And so then what they're gonna do is they're gonna ask you to join a discipleship group. Now let me tell you why discipleship groups important. Two reasons. Number one, so that you can learn about the gospel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, there's so much more to this than what I can say on a Sunday. What I can say on a Saturday night or whenever you listen to the sermons. There's so much more. There's so much depth. And let me encourage you, I I've been studying this for thirty years and I cannot tell you how many times I've read something a 100 times and I look at it and I go, wow, I didn't see that ever before.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's so much more of God that you are to discover and it and it happens in community when you study God's word. So get in a discipleship group. Some of you this year, this is the year you need to take the leap of faith and become a discipleship leader. Last week at church, one of the gals back in the production booth, she said, hey, before you go out to preach, she said, my husband and I are gonna be we're gonna become discipleship leaders. She's like, do you any words of advice?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, pray and trust God. She's like, we don't want any crazy people. I was like, you might get some. You might get some. But you know what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're welcome too. Amen? That's why some of you got to come here. It's great. You know what I'm saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So join a discipleship group or lead one. And then let me encourage you with this, find a way to serve this year. There's no better way to connect yourself with God than through service. The first verse I memorized as a Christian is in the Gospel of Mark chapter 10 verse 45. For the son of man did not come to serve, excuse me, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as ransom for many.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I can't worship a servant if I'm not serving. So find a way to connect and to deepen your walk this year and listen to me, you will change your life. Don't let don't just let Jesus hunt for people, you hunt for them. You hunt for their souls. You lead people to Christ.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You pray for people because they're all around us. And one of the best ways one of the best ways we can change our life is by helping others change theirs. Amen. Let's bow our heads. Let's close our eyes and let's pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Heavenly father, we pray Lord for 2026. Lord, we dedicate right here, right now, this year to you. Lord, if we're married, we dedicate our marriage to you. Lord, if we're single, we dedicate our singleness to you. Lord, if we're a part of a family in this church, let this be the year where we dedicate our family to you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God, will we put you first? Lord, this is Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year. Lord, let us make sure that you're the head of our year. Let us make sure that you're first in this year. Lord, we invite you to work in our lives.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We invite you to minister in our lives. Move in 2026, Lord, move in our lives, move in our church, move in our state, move in our nation. We pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I love you. What a good word, man. What a word for us as we begin the new year here in 2026. And listen, I wanna invite you wherever you happen to be, wherever you're watching this, we would love to know who you are. We would love to help you understand even in a distant place how you can be connected to the work that God is doing in and through Sandals Church.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:To do that, I wanna invite you to go to sandalschurch.com/help. That is our one stop place where you can get prayer, share a story, share a need, but also get connected to the work that we are doing even in a global way. So we'd love to see you there. Grace and peace, and hope you have a happy New Year.