Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 Moi Navarro, and I'm the campus pastor at Sandals Church Anaheim. We're so happy to have you join us as we listen to this incredible message. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, happy holidays. I hope you're enjoying time with your family. We were gathered around the fire this week. We get to do that once a year in Southern California, amen. Like even if like you're sweating, it's nice, you just enjoy it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we were talking about somebody in our church who's sick and I just said, you know, I think maybe they're they're struggling with this disease and my daughter, my oldest, she's like, how are you so smart and yet not prideful? It's like the greatest compliment ever of my life. I was like, wait, can you say that again? We're gonna record that. But it was interesting, and I said, what makes you think I'm not prideful?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And she just said, well, people my age, they just are always like shouting out and saying, like what they know. And I said, oh, I used to be that way. And she's like, what happened? I was like, life, life happened. And so here's what I told my daughter.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, here's how I know when I'm losing my battle with pride, when I don't think I have it. That's how I know, like, and if you're that person like, I don't struggle with pride, that's because you lost, you lost the struggle, like it's over. You know, you're down for the three count. But pride is something that can get the best of us even as Christians. If we're not careful, we can become prideful about our faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We can be prideful about our job, about what we know. And so today we're gonna talk about how Jesus says children can help us win this battle with pride. So I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew eighteen:one-six. In just these five verses, we're gonna talk about how these little Rugrats that many of you wanna avoid at Christmas time actually are there to help you stay humble. Because if you don't do this, man, it's gonna eat you alive.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus reveals, let's take a look at this. Jesus reveals that even the best people can struggle with pride. Now how many of you guys have somebody in your life, don't point at them, struggles with pride? Come on, raise your hands. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we all should be doing this, but I'm saying, you know, right now, yep, yep, yep. So there's just a part of us, right, that always wants to know who the GOAT is. Like my son and I, we constantly have this battle because he's young and ignorant over who is the greatest basketball player of all time, and he insists it's LeBron James. And even the Lord Jesus knows it's Michael Jordan. So right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And, you know, and I I wasn't a Jordan fan. I was a Lakers fan. He destroyed us. But he was you know, he's the greatest of all time. But there's just this thing, like, who's the greatest?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Who's the GOAT? You know, and the disciples, you know, they didn't know who Michael Jordan was. So they're like, who's the greatest in heaven? You know, like who dunks forever? They wanna know that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's why they're asking. They're hoping it's one of them. You know, they're hoping like Jesus is gonna say, I don't wanna say, but Peter, it's you. You know, and he's like, we all knew. Here's what Jesus, Jesus is say, Look, man, this is not the case.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So in Matthew eighteen:one, let's throw it up there. About that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Like, who's the GOAT of all time? And here's the thing, man, we gotta be careful. Even in Riverside, Christians can be mean about other churches.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You go to sandals, why because you can't afford shoes, you know, like people knock churches rather than just saying, hey, I prefer harvest or the Grove or I prefer sandals because you know, he's at my level, his IQ, you know, like we're both we both struggle together. But you know, even Christians do that. We put down other churches or other ministries and that's because there's pride even in the house of God. And so we gotta be careful about that. Remember, God loves every church, big, small, like, I mean, he loves all of us and none of us are perfect.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you really, really gotta be careful about pride because it can get you really quickly. I was aware of pride pretty early. So we started Sandals Church basically like a garage band, you know, like you're gonna play the bass and you're gonna play the drums, and all of a sudden we blew up overnight. And it went from, I would tell people, I'm the pastor of Sandals, and they would say, Who? To then I was walking in the mall one day and somebody said, that's Matt Brown.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And my head just, I was like, yes, it is. Yes, it is. And I remember one time specifically, was going to the movie theaters with my family and I was running late. I know that's hard for you to believe. I was running late and my family was already inside the movie theater and I was going to run up the steps and join them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And as I was running up the steps, someone announced that was waiting in line. Hey, I think that's Matt Brown. And I turned so that they could get a clear view, you know, to make sure that it was me and I caught my foot on the steps. And I splayed in front of about 300 people waiting in line, literally had road rash on my face. And the Lord was like, are we good?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Are we good? And so here's what I told my daughter. I feel like about every decade, there's just this car crash with me and Jesus. And he's like, bro, we've got to deal with this. And I just want you to know this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There was a season about two years ago where I really thought I won, you know what I'm saying? I thought I put pride down, I had knocked him out and he wasn't coming back. And all of a sudden the Lord revealed levels of pride that I had never seen. And that's what scared me is it was there the whole time. And so I want you to write this down, the less I see pride in my life, the more control it has over me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So the less I see it, the more control it has. So raise your hand if you're young. Okay, if you had to think about it, don't raise your hand. Like if you even were like, nope, you've graduated, you're old. Here's the thing, the younger you are, the harder it is to deal with this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at one Peter, he says this, and Peter knows a lot about pride. He says, Likewise, you were younger, be subject to the elders. Now think about it, we're American, we're not subject to anybody. And that's because we're very prideful people. We just are, that's our reputation across the globe.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We're very, very prideful people. And pride is a dangerous thing. I'm not saying you should never, you should take pride in your work. You should take some pride in yourselves, like brush your teeth, comb your hair, amen, put on deodorant for the love of Jesus. So I'm not talking about in every area, I'm not talking about you should self loathe, like I'm no good, but some of us, we can get really swollen really quickly.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so here's what Peter says to young people. He says, Clothe yourselves. So think about this, this a daily process. So please, for the love of God, clothe yourselves, amen? Clothe yourselves, all of you, now he includes the old people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So if you weren't sure, now you're included. All of you with humility towards one another. So what does pride mess up? Our relationships with each other. It messes up a relationship with our spouse, our friends, our family, our work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When we're driving on the 91 and someone has the gall to cut me off. Don't you know who I am? Right? And then we exchange number ones. You know what I'm saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're number one. No, no, you're number one. Listen to this. Clothe yourselves all of you with humility towards one another for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So listen to me, pride can ruin your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I've been your pastor now, I can't believe I'm saying this, almost thirty years. I've been your pastor longer than the age I was when I started. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I've been here a long time. I have seen very, very talented people come to this church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me, pride can override your talent. How many of you, raise your hand if you're a sports fan, raise your hand. All of us are aware of some kid coming up that was the next big thing and something happened. Okay, it could be injury, but often it's pride. They don't wanna work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They've been spoiled their whole life. People have catered to them and they don't know how to receive feedback, criticism or coaching. It can override your talent. And you have to ask yourself, am I willing to receive feedback? And here's the thing, I tell you this, I get feedback every single week.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People are like, love your message. You're terrible. You know, you're a great Christian. You're a heretic. I hear it all.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so you just gotta deal with that feedback and then just say, okay, I don't wanna be prideful. I wanna receive that. Next, raise your hand if you're married. All right, it can ruin your marriage. I literally have a friend who said this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He said this, he's going to counseling with his wife. He said, I would change, I'm just not wrong. I was like, And you're soon to not be married. This guy's smart, this guy loves the Lord, this guy knows his Bible, he just can't see himself. This is why the vision of sandals is so important, real with self, real with others.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He thinks he's right. And here's what happened, his therapist broke up with him. Like think about you're paying an expert. They're like, yeah, we're done. But it can ruin your marriage.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so we have to be careful. And I guarantee you, 90% of my fights with Tammy, it's my pride. It's my pride. I didn't say it that way. I'm not yelling.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, it's like when you're yelling, you're not yelling, you're yelling. I did not raise my voice. Anybody had a fight about eyes, eye rolls? Dude, oh my gosh, my wife's like, why did you do that? I'm like, do what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, how about this one? You could destroy your kids. Can I just tell you your kids aren't little yous? They're just not. They're little thems.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're a unique person. And we've all been to a sporting event, man, where a dad is just like reliving his childhood. You know, my son's going pro. It's like, no, look at his DNA. It's not happening, bro.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, like, you know, look at your body. It's not happening. But we've all seen a parent lose it. Lose it at a soccer game. I mean, it's like they're four, they're four, bro, they're four.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you got dads fighting, literally, pride just with your kids, man, you get offended, you get upset. And here's the thing is, the whole point of children is to keep you humble, not to make you arrogant. And here's what I wanna warn you, pride never ends well. According to the Bible, it ends in destruction and or my favorite one, humiliation. Look at this verse in Proverbs.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It says that pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. Isn't that amazing? Pride brings humiliation, but if you intentionally, I mean, the word humiliation and humble are related. If you try to avoid humiliation, that's what happens, but if you embrace it, what happens? You're honored, okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But here's the thing, pride doesn't have to be your story. You can change. This is the beauty of Christianity, you can change. It doesn't matter if you come from a prideful family. It doesn't matter if you've been prideful your whole life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It doesn't matter if you've blown up a marriage. It doesn't matter if you've lost a job. Listen, you can change. The beauty of Christianity is you can change. So there's this king in the Hebrew Bible, his name is Hezekiah, and he's actually a pretty good king.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, you know, if you compare him to the others, he's probably not the goat, but he's, you know, he's top three, top four, good guy. Been through a tunnel that he made in Israel. It's awesome, it's still there. But he got prideful and here's what happened. He got sick and he needed the Lord to heal him and the Lord healed him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then when he was well, he didn't need the Lord anymore. It's amazing to me how many people come to church when their marriage is on the rocks, but when it's great, they go to Vegas. We don't need the Lord. And then they come running back. And so I just want you to know that God says, look, man, he doesn't want you to just come to him when you need something.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So Hezekiah needed a miracle and he came to the Lord and the Lord blessed him and healed him. And then Hezekiah got arrogant and the Lord was like, look, buddy, you're gonna die and your people are gonna suffer. Look at two Chronicles 3two 26, But Hezekiah humbled himself. So I want you to write this down, that's the only thing, the only person that can humble you is you, no one else can do it for you. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now this is amazing. Both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, this is so good, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. So they all humbled themselves and they were all blessed. Listen to me if you're a dad, if you're a husband, repenting of pride and embracing humility will bless you and the people you love. You wanna screw up your family, stay prideful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Moms, you wanna mess up your kids, stay prideful. Moms, you should be the first person that says, yeah, mommy was wrong. Mommy blew it. If your kids can't apologize, maybe that's because they didn't learn it how from you. You gotta learn to say, you know what, I'm sorry, I blew it, I messed up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I know that's hard, but as Christians, we should be the best at saying I'm sorry. We should be the best at repenting. We should be the best at apologizing. So check this out, this is where the passage turns and some of us miss this. Jesus reduces my pride, look at this, by turning my focus to the importance of his children.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, isn't amazing, you know who doesn't take selfies, little kids. No three year old is like, look at me, look at me, look at me. They have to learn that from us. So God turns our attention away from ourselves and turns it towards children. So look at Matthew eighteen:two, this genius.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus called a little child to him and he put the child among them. So the kid was already there, but nobody noticed. So I want you to think about that when you come to church, how many little kids did you walk by? How many children did you walk by? And you just missed them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And sometimes on the weekends, the whole point is the kids, It's the kids. Do you know that there's probably a little kid running around somewhere with boogers in his nose and he forgot a sock, maybe he's missing his underwear and that's our future pastor? We need to invest in him. Put your pants on correctly, that's important to lead the church, right? It's important.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Think about that. These little kids are our future and we need to pay attention to them. So Jesus calls the kid and everybody says, Oh, it's all about Jesus. And Jesus says, Okay, okay, okay. But let that little child come to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now, a chapter ahead of where we are, look at Matthew nineteen thirteen. One day, parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. So these parents want Jesus to bless their child. Look at this, But the disciples scolded the parents. How dare you bring your child to Jesus, right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, it's terrible. Look at this, but the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. Now, I'm gonna jump in your face a little bit, just relax. The next time there's a kid in service screaming. Look, I don't like it either.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I have ADHD, do you know how hard it is for me to focus right now? But here's the thing, we don't know what's going on in that parent's life. We don't know what's going on in that kid's life. I remember years ago, I was in the back lobby at Hunter Park, and there was a dad and he had two kids, and they were probably three and five. And I went up to him and I said, hey, we have an amazing kids program for your kids.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I think that they would really be better served where the ministry and the message is devoted to them. I said, could I take them there with you? And he started crying. And this is what he said. He said, my wife and I went through a divorce and she has primary custody.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he said, I get them for four hours today. And I don't wanna be without them for an hour. Paradigm shift. And I just want you to think about that. We don't know what's going on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now, if you have kids, my preference is, if you're listening to this, my preference is you put them in a place and in an environment that's suited for them so they like church, Okay? I mean, how many of us grew up in church where we were shushed for an hour? Shush, shush, shush, shush. I mean, Tammy and I went to the Vatican two years ago and I had like PTSD. All the priests were like, shush, shush, shush.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was like, don't you shush me. I'm 50, I'm not five. And the priest was like, But listen to me, we have an environment for kids where they get to be kids, where they get to run around, they get to play, they get to have fun, they get to sing songs, and that's important. But here's the thing, if there is somebody with the kid in church today, praise God, they're in church today, amen? Because most kids are not in church and we don't know what's going on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now, if your child is attacked by a demon in the middle of the service and they are screeching or dying, take them out. Right? You know, it's you guys ever like, I think your child's dying and needs medical attention. So we love you, but we need to care about those kids. So instead of judging the parents, for the parents and pray for the kids.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because I'm just so grateful that parents bring kids to church today. Don't be like the disciples, they scolded the parents for bothering Jesus. And let's be honest, why don't we like the screaming? It's bothering me. It's getting in the way of me worshiping the son of God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I need to focus on Jesus. That's what the disciples are saying. You're not allowing people to focus on Jesus. Your kids are getting in the way. Johnny has a runny nose, I think he has COVID, get him away.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But Jesus said, let the children what? Come to me, don't stop them. Don't stop them. Now hold on, here's the lesson, this is so good. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like children.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Remember the conversation, who's the GOAT? Who's the greatest? Who's the LeBron James? Who's the Michael Jordan? Whoever becomes like a child.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And the only way you can become like a child is by hanging out with kids because we forget when we get old. This is how you know when you get old. You look out the window and you can see kids skateboarding and you're like, ugh. They're not wearing a helmet. That's that that's when you've transitioned.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's no going back. You know what I'm saying? I mean, just, you you see a kid in your yard, what are they doing? Are they stealing my packages? No, they're playing tag.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You should go out and play with them. I mean, unless you're weird, you know what I'm saying? Right? But kids, kids teach us how to be humble. And here's why we don't want to spend time with them, because we have to do what they wanna do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When I babysit my grandson, my daughter, she has a policy, no screens, no screens apparently makes you dumb. That's why I am the way I am. I was raised on Sesame Street. And so you know what we do? We just do this, we just sit down and we just like for hours, whatever he wants to do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you know what that's doing? It's impacting my pride, it's not about me, it's about him. And so the last time I worked in kids ministry, this little guy, it was in the four year olds. Let me tell you something, there's no scarier group than the four year olds. And this guy sat on me and he was just farting like this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I I was like, do you need to go to the bathroom? And he's like, I have allergies. I was like, I don't think a Zyrtec is gonna fix this, know. But listen to me, you know that little guy, I kid you not. I got to spend an hour with him on the floor and he told me he was afraid of girls.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, me too. But listen to me, you know that little guy had to have open heart surgery like six months later. And I was so glad that I got to have a connection with him. It was so amazing. And I wish that we all had that attitude.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wish that all of our staff here at Sandals Church is like, they're short on kids workers this week, I'll go in there. But do you know the hardest ministry to recruit for is the one that Jesus said is most important. So we we wanna come and worship Jesus, but Jesus is saying, look, you wanna worship me, you gotta become like a child. When's the last time you rolled around on the floor? When's the last time you let a little four year old fart on your leg?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And let me tell you something, some of the kids that are coming to our church, I mean, they're coming from some really, really tough backgrounds. There was a little girl that was in the class that night and she, you know, she didn't listen, she didn't sit down, she yelled, she screamed, she acted out. And I was like, how do we control her? And the teacher was like, we don't. He said, but if you knew how out of control her home life was, you would be praying for her.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was like, oh my gosh, not every kid has a grandpa that sits down with them in place. Not every child has a parent that's concerned about screen time. A lot of children are just raised by screens, that's it. And so we gotta say, look, if we wanna change the future, gotta change the life of a child. But here's the thing, it's not just the child's life you're changing, according to Jesus, you're changing your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Next, Jesus says this, Jesus says, children help teach me what humility is all about. I mean, this is, you guys, this teaching is so rich here and so misunderstood. I mean, is, if we're honest, this is one of the passages that nobody ever sends a debrief question about. Nobody ever trips up over this, nobody's ever worried about this, nobody's ever up at night wrestling about this passage, but it's deep. It's really deep and it's really challenging.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to what Jesus says, Matthew eighteen:three. He says this, he says, Then he said, I tell you the truth. Like he's going varsity Christianity here. This is deep stuff. I tell you the truth, remember you wanna be a goat, you wanna be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, you wanna be like me?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. Wow, that's how important kids are in our lives. If we don't understand what it means to be a child, we will never understand what it means to be a Christian. I mean, when a child falls, they cry. We cover it up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, many of you have ever lied? You've been really hurt. Are you doing okay? Fine. Like as an adult, we fall, we lie instantly.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like I'm over 50, I could be in the hospital now when I fall. And when I fall and it happens, I literally how many, if you're old people, you have to tell yourself, pick it up, pick it up, pick it up. That's what you have to do. Pick it up, pick it up. We got new carpet at HB, you gotta like really high step, man.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, there's been like 75 year olds in our church, eight year olds that have fallen. And I'm like, are you okay? And they're like, I'm fine. I'm like, you just lied to your pastor and I'm pretty sure your hip is sideways. But what does the little kid do when they fall?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They cry. And we tell them, stop crying, I'll give you something to cry about. No, that was the eighties. Sorry, that's not nowadays, kids tell you, right, I need a hug. You know what my grandson will do?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He just walks up to me with a book, gives me the book, sits in my lap and I know he can't read. So he's not even one yet. So we're reading. He just says, you know what kids do? They tell us what they need.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm hungry. They cry. They teach us how to be emotional and for a lot of us as adults we forgot. You know what kids do that I love? That man, when my grandson does this, and that's really the problem with a lot of you in worship.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God's waiting for you to do this during worship. I need a hug today, Lord. I need a hug. So let's take a look at the passage. So anyone becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Wow. You know why kids are so important? They remind us we don't know everything. The first question on the debrief this week is from a teacher, I love it. And the teacher says, hey, this kid in my class has this question, help.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And it's a great question, you'll have to listen to the debrief for me to give the answer, but it's a great question. But kids, kids man, they remind us that, there's just stuff we don't know. Like as adults, we just try to all act like we got it together. Next, kids point out your flaws, man. Why is your nose big?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why are your eyes crossed? What is that? Is that a pimple or a tumor? You know, like they're just like, you know, kids kids just and they're not trying to put you down there like curious, you know. Why do you have that hair in the middle of your forehead?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, like what what is that, you know. They just and it makes you humble, you know, like you smell nice or you smell bad, you know, they tell you whatever. And kids humble us, man, because they're just so real. But you know what I love about kids the most is they celebrate freely. Like anybody ever been around a three year old?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like it's like naked day every day, man, they're just like free. And I'm not saying you should do that if you're 30 because you're gonna go to prison. But you know what little kids have, they're just so comfortable with who they are. Like, where's your nose? Where's your belly button?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Just, no three year old is like, my nose is large, my ears are too big, my and every three year old's head is too large and they're not sensitive about it. That's why can't go the way they want. Kids celebrate freely. One of my favorite things to do is just turn on music. Like I exposed my grandson West to vanilla ice.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he was like, do do do do do do do And he just started doing this. He was feeling it. And then he busted up. Alright, stop. Carl, no, he didn't say that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But we just play music for him and he just, he understands that, you know, we're supposed to move. And then when we play music in church, you're all like this. You know, maybe we need to play it. You know, and so you guys can like relax. And then Jesus comes out, alright, stop.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Alright, listen. You know, that's Vanilla Ice's line, sorry. Here's the other thing I love, kids love to share. Even if it's their last cookie. When I feed my grandson, he always wants to make sure I have one.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I'm cool with that as long as he hasn't like, you know. You know, because sometimes he'll give it a swirl. Wants to make sure that I have enough chemicals on it to digest it. But isn't it interesting kids share? If we had an offering time with kids, know what they'd give everything they have.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at this last point, Jesus teaches that leading, loving and teaching his children is important work. If we surveyed the seminaries across America and asked how many seminarians and if you don't what seminary is, that's graduate school for pastors. I went to seminary. If we surveyed the seminarians across this country, what percentage do you think would say they're going to school to teach children? It's zero.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You didn't miss it's zero. They're going to Samaria to serve Jesus. Jesus said you wanna serve me, serve kids. Do you see why this passage is so important? Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 18, and anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf, do you hear that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:On my behalf is welcoming who? Me. Anyone who welcomes one of these little children, remember the children that the disciples said, they're bothering you. No, no, when you welcome them, you're welcoming me. And now listen to this, but if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large stone tied around your neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And for those of you who don't believe in hell know this, Jesus does. God help every religious teacher who ever hurt a kid on judgment day. I think they're gonna be first in line when parents entrusted their children to clergy and they were wounded. They're gonna be first in line for judgment day. Now, let me tell you, we do the best that we can.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wish that evil people would raise their hands, that would be so helpful, don't you think? Who hears evil? Thank you. They don't, but we background check everybody and we watch our kids like a hawk because we wanna protect those kids. And we wanna love those kids and we take that very, very seriously.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now, let me say this, there's no way we can be perfect. Because evil people are sneaky. We gotta be smart. But let me share this, people who teach children should do a couple things. Number one, love them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When we have kids that come to church, here's what I want them to know, they're loved. Do you think they're feeling that at public school? You think they feel that online? Did you see that Australia is banning social media for all kids? Because do you know what happens online?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Turns out kids are sinners. You're fat, you're ugly, you're gross, hurt yourself, right? End your life. We want kids to come to church. You're loved, you're beautiful, God cared, God created you, God loves you, God has a plan for you, God designed you, God died for you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We want them to be loved, amen? And next we protect them, we protect them. My primary job as the shepherd of this church is to get rid of the wolves. That's my job, to protect them and that's our job, we gotta watch out. Next to disciple them, okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And parents, by the way, it's not our job to disciple your kid, that's your job. We're trying to help you do your job. But we gotta disciple them. And so here's how we disciple. Jesus says this, follow me, follow me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we teach our kids how to follow Jesus because we're following Jesus. The Apostle Paul says this, follow me as I follow Christ. That's what we're supposed to do. And then next man, this is huge, Make church fun. Why is it boring?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Whose idea? Somebody fire that guy. I think church should stink. I mean, my gosh. And there's all these young people today, they're going back to Orthodox because they like the Gregorian chant, the oh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Know why they sing like that? Because they were on their knees and it hurt. And they're like, oh, oh, oh, oh. And what they're really saying is how long, how long, how long? Church should be fun.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It should be exciting. And somehow we've turned the great adventure of following Jesus into a boring shush fest. Amen, makes me sad. We should humbly use our gifts to help the church reach the next generation. And some of you guys are like, well, don't have any gifts, you have gifts.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Every single one of you has gifts. And I don't know what it is, but some of you, maybe the Lord has blessed you financially and you could write a check so we can hire people who are gifted with kids. Okay, you may not be able to be the one that gets down on your knees. You might not be able to be the one that teaches. You might not be able to do the one that dances and sings and does all that stuff, but you can do something.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Psalm 70 eight:four, look at this verse. We will not hide these truths from our children. We will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about His power and His mighty wonders. We have to reach the next generation. Last week, I was in Korea.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know that Korea had the largest level of revival of any nation on earth the last century? Literally, Korea became a Christian nation in the last century. A preacher by the name of Billy Graham preached to a live audience in Korea to 1,400,000 people. That's a mega church, amen? It's amazing, but do you know what's happening?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Young people are not following their parents. Young people are turning to money, to fashion, to K pop, to everything but Jesus because the Korean church got stuck in their generation. And their music doesn't look like K pop, it looks like, and the kids don't wanna go. And let me tell you, I'm gonna tell you the story I told them. Years ago, Tammy and I had our first small group and we had a swimming pool.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And by the way, if you have little kids, I'm not a fan of swimming pools, they make me nervous. And I came home, I had done a funeral and I was in a suit. And we came home and everybody was looking for a little girl in our small group, she was about three. Her name was Madison and we couldn't find her anywhere. And I thought, oh, dear God, I don't want her to be in the pool.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We had invested in the gate to keep kids out, it was automatic and I thought there's no way she could be in the pool because we paid a couple thousand dollars for that automatic gate that's gonna close, but we couldn't find her anywhere. And so you know what I did? I went in the backyard wearing my suit and guess where Madison was? The bottom of the pool. You know what I didn't do?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I gotta take off this expensive suit that I just bought. You know what I did? I jumped right in because her soul matters. And this is what I told the Korean church, said quit wearing the suit, quit worrying about how you're dressed, reach the kids, They're dying, they need Jesus. Do whatever it takes to reach them, amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Whatever it takes. And so that's what I would say as a church, what do we gotta do to reach the next generation? What do we I think K pop is lame, but if I gotta be up here and like, you know, whatever. You know? Whatever it takes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And what happens? What happens when one church tries to reach the next generation? The rest of them make fun of them. Oh, those guys, they've gone seeker sensitive. No, no, we're just trying to reach the lost.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Jesus says, man, we gotta reach the next generation. You wanna know why America's so broken? Because we didn't reach the last generation. We gotta reach them. Jesus has let the children come unto me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So let's close today, think about the Christmas season, right? It's about kids. Let's make this weekend about kids. First Peter four ten says this, God has given you each a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well, look at this, to serve one another.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:One another by the way, is always my church family. One last verse, first Peter, care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Sandals is the flock that God has entrusted to you. Look at this, watch over it willingly, not grudgingly, not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Let's bow our heads and let's pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And let's ask the Holy Spirit right now. Lord, what can I do to reach kids for you? What can I do to let the children come unto you? Lord, do I need to become a teacher? Do I need to become a disciple maker of children?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What do I need to do Lord to help families who are divorced and only get kids so many hours a week? What do I need to do? What are you calling me to do in order to reach the next generation for Jesus? Lord, impress upon us as a church to reach the next generation, Lord, to care about kids, to care about youth, to care about young people, Lord, because if we don't reach them, there is no church in the future. Lord move in our hearts, convict us Lord to care about kids.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said. Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Thank you so much for being part of our service today. We pray that wherever you are at and whatever your story might be, that as often as you see a child this week, you would hear the invitation to become like that as you follow Jesus. And however this ministry has been serving you, I would encourage you to pray about how you would support the work that God is doing in through Sandals Church, especially as we close out this year. To support us, you can go to sandalschurch.com/support. Grace and peace.