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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 McKay, and I'm a part of the online team here at Sandals Church. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Matt, teaching from our series, the gospel of Matthew. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. Now let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:In 1984, there was a number one song that changed music as we know it. Some of you, you may not know what the song is, but as soon as I tell you the lyrics, you might remember it. Even if you weren't born then in 1984, you know these lyrics. It begins like a church service. It says, dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called Life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Life. Okay, all the old people knew what that was, the young people are googling it. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. Prince wrote these lyrics and really changed music, changed the way that we we talk about our struggles. And why is that song still relevant today?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Even though it was written in 1984, even though it was number one in 1984, it's because we still struggle to get through life. Amen? And here's the thing. Prince wrote those words because a lot of people worship is not what they do in church. Worship is what they listen to on the radio.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Worship is when they go to a concert. Worship is when they turn to someone who's written words that they identify with. A band that they get, right? Music that that speaks to their soul. You see everybody's worshiping something.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everybody's turning to something because life is difficult. Okay. Any parents in the room raising kids? Raise your hands. Under five?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Kids? Yes. K. You are so close to hell. You have no idea.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Hell may just be two year olds running around with weapons. Right? No. Two year olds men are tough, man. They're so beautiful, but they're also so challenging.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Anybody raising teenagers? Okay, that's just a bigger version of a two year old. That's all that is? But life is difficult. Every stage of life is difficult.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me parents, if you wanna do your kids a favor, just be honest with them. Life is tough. Amen. Life is so difficult. Life is so challenging and it comes in waves after waves after waves.
Audience:That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen, if you're single, being single is tough. Okay? If you're married, okay? Guys, just don't acknowledge this. Marriage is tough.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My wife's not in here. It's tough. Raising kids is tough. Not having kids is tough. Losing your parent is tough.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Watching your parents get old is tough. Life is hard, life is difficult. Does anybody know the name of the song that I talked about, the nineteen eighty four songs, anybody know what it is? Not nineteen ninety nine, it's Let's Go Crazy. Now do you know what happened to Prince?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He ultimately went crazy, he couldn't handle his fame, couldn't handle the pain and he died of a fentanyl overdose about ten years ago. You see, Prince, like all of us, we have to turn to something in order to get through life. This thing called life. And unfortunately for Prince, he turned to the wrong thing. And every single one of you, you know somebody, you love somebody that's turning to drugs, turning to alcohol, turning to sex, turning to fame, turning to influence, turning to wealth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing, Prince died with 300,000,000 in the bank. Anybody in here, could you live off that? And if you have that, would you tithe in the name of Jesus? What are you doing? But so many of the things, listen to me, we're turning to, Prince turned to and it wasn't enough.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wanna talk today about the power for the life you were meant to live. What is the power that you need to get through marriage, to get through being single, to to get through debt, to get through school, to get through life? Every single one of us needs power that we don't have to live the life we were called to live. And so many of the things that we turn to can't satisfy and can't supply the power we need. Here's the number one point, want you to write this down.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus gives real power to people who take on his mission. Now I want you to listen to this. He doesn't give you power for your mission. If you're on your mission, you're on your own power. You're on your own power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So don't ask God to bless your mission, God is asking you to join his mission. And when you join his mission, you get his power. And so that's the thing, listen to me. You want power in your marriage? Make your marriage his.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You want power in raising your kids? Make your kids his. You want power in your finances? Make your finances his. Turn it over to him and you receive his power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You you you If your money's your own, your kids are your own, your marriage is your own, you're on your own. And so Jesus invites these 12 guys to follow him, listen to this, on his mission. In Matthew ten one through four, look at this, and he called to him his 12 disciples. Now if you're new to Christianity and somebody asks you in a trivia game, how many disciples were there? The answer is 12.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if you don't know, tell people you go to harvest, amen? It's 12. There's 12 disciples. For the love of Jesus and all that is holy, there's 12.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he called to him his 12 disciples. Now we're all disciples, right? If we're a follower of Christ, we're all disciples. These are unique disciples. These are the first 12 and they sit in a unique position in the history of the church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:These 12 guys are called to change the world. And in the same way you're called to change the world, but they have a unique position. So and he called to him his 12 disciples and he gave them authority over unclean spirits To cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction. Can you imagine if Jesus walked into Loma Linda Hospital? There would be no more sick people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now Loma Linda, God bless them, tries to heal in his name and I appreciate them, they're a Christian hospital. But if Jesus walked in there, think about if he just walked through the cancer ward. Listen to me, some of you are so afraid to share your faith in Jesus. Let me tell you something, the world needs Jesus. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because he is the healer of all things. And so listen to this, the names of the 12 that had been given this authority, had been given this power, they all had names. Now some of you read your bibles, you're like, wait a minute, there's a different list of names in Luke, it's different in Mark, it's different in Matthew. How come they couldn't get the names right? Because in cultures where there are multiple languages, people have multiple names.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matter of fact, my assistant, k, his name is An Vu. I call him Luke. Right? Because I can't pronounce An Vu, I practiced that like 10 times. So Anvu is his Vietnamese name, his American name is Luke.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so they do that because sometimes when you say your name in another language, people can't say it. For example, we think Jesus' name is Jesus, there's no j in Hebrew. Like it doesn't exist. His name is Jesus. It's Jesus, you're not saying the wrong name, it's fine.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He knows who you're talking about when you call on Jesus. He's not like, wait a minute, is that me? No, he knows. He knows. But it was not uncommon for people to have a Greek name, a Hebrew name, an Aramaic name, and a Roman name.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And depending upon where you lived, you could have multiple names so people could speak to you in a language they understood. Amen. So every single list in the Bible of the 12, every single time, listen to this, it begins with Peter. It always starts with Peter. Peter is a unique disciple.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He had a unique calling and if you wanna feel better about your life, read about Peter because he was an idiot. Amen? And that's the thing is, listen to me, if you're a mess, that probably means there's a real calling in your life. Because one of two things is gonna happen, you're gonna make a difference for the kingdom of God or you're gonna make a difference for hell. But you're gonna make a difference.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're gonna make a splash one way or the other. So Simon was one of those people that he was gonna make a splash. So look at this, Simon who is called, you see it, Peter. So right there you see that he has two names, same guy, two names. And Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thomas and here's a good name for a boy if you're having one, Matthew. Right? Now here's what I want you to see. Matthew who is the author of this book, look at what he throws out there, Matthew the tax collector. I love Matthew's humility.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He wants you to know who he was and what he was when Jesus found him. Let me tell you something, you wanna truly become a disciple of Christ, never forget where you were when Jesus found you. Never forget. And Matthew says, no no no, I betrayed my own people. I betrayed my own family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I I took money from my own friends but Jesus, Jesus gave me a new meaning, Jesus gave me a new purpose, Jesus gave me a new family. And then there's James the son of Alpheus and Thaddeus. Okay, how many of you guys have a friend that's too political? Raise your hands. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So did Jesus. His name, look at this. His name was Simon the Zealot. Okay. Just write in your bible crazy person.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's what zealot means. And and we all have this friend, right? That's all about whatever's happening politically. Right, left, center. I mean politics is the new religion.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing you need to know, a lot of Jewish people in the day and age of Jesus, they wanted a political revolution. And Jesus didn't come for a political revolution He came for a spiritual one but he got the attention of Simon the Zealot He said, Hey, hey, get out of politics, come follow me Now I'm not saying Christians shouldn't be involved in politics I'm just saying that's not the end game And then every single list in the Bible, Peter is always first, guess who's always last? Judas. Judas. Who what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Betrayed him. Now listen to me, You are not truly following Jesus until you learn to forgive your Judas. Amen. At some point in time you will be hurt by somebody in Christianity. Don't let that give you an excuse to let go of your faith in Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Even Jesus had a Judas. Even Jesus, and we're gonna speak to this in a minute because there's a lot of people who don't go to church anymore who've been wounded in the church and they need to come back. I was at Ace Hardware this week and if you guys ever run into me in public, give me some grace. I don't know exactly how many people I've pastored but it's right around a 100 to a 130,000 people over the last thirty years. You know what that means?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I got a long contact list, okay? You know what I'm saying? And so when you come up to me, I got the old Rolodex, it's spinning, it's spinning, it's spinning. It's like, do I know you? Are we friends?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you hate me? Do you love me? Are you gonna punch me? It's just all going through my mind because I don't know. And so this guy came up to me and I recognized his face but I didn't remember his name.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he said, hey. And I said, hey. He said, pastor Matt, I said, you. You. And then I said, it's been a long time.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He said, yeah, he put his head down. He said, I don't know if you know, he said, but Michelle died. Michelle was his wife. She was very sick in our church early on. I said, I'm sorry to hear that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He said, I'm remarried, I got a kid. I said, that's good news. I said, are you in church? And he put his head down. He said, no.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, well listen, I don't know what happened but I bet we didn't minister to you the way that you wanted. I'm sorry. I want you to know we're here when you're ready to come back. We're here. So I'm imagining, I don't know if you know this, Sandals is full of people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? And people make mistakes. And we probably didn't minister to him the way that he felt like he needed. And he fell out of church. But here's the thing is, I I don't want him to lose his faith in God because Sandals didn't handle that maybe the right way.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I don't know if we did it wrong. But I know who we are, amen? I know. We're talented at dropping the ball. But here's the thing, Jesus is gonna give you power when you take on his mission.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If if I could if I could just just speak with everybody in here under 30, I would tell you this, there's no greater adventure than following Jesus. You have no idea the places that you will go, the things that you will see, the the the things that you will experience if you follow him. You want a dull and boring life, go your own way. Go your own way. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But you need power. Jesus says, I give you authority. I give you the authority to cast out demons, to heal the afflicted. Right? I give you power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now go. The world is crazy. Get out there and make a difference. But here's the thing is, you don't just need the power of Jesus to go out and make a difference. You need the power of Jesus in your own home, in your own life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So look at this next point, the power of Jesus can bring healing to those closest to me. Man, how many of you have a family member or friend that's really hurting? Raise your hands. Man, you know what I think about every time I see a homeless person? I think about who their family is.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's a family that's tried, it's a family that's given their all, it's a family that's hurting. Right, that's not a scary person, that's somebody's brother, that's somebody's sister, that's somebody's son, that's somebody's daughter. Right, these are these are people and they they they need our love. They need our power. Not our power, his power that he's given to us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matthew ten:five-six. These 12 Jesus sent out instructing them, go nowhere amongst the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Here's the thing, listen to me, your first mission field is your family. And here's how pastors get it twisted. Here's why guys fall apart.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They quit ministering to their own family and then their life falls apart. Minister to your own family. Okay? I mean how many of you guys got some nutty people in your family? Raise your hands.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't point at them, but you know what I'm saying? Right? I got some people. I don't know what you got, but I got some people. I got some hard people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And let me say this, the hardest people to reach are the people you love the most. Amen. They are. Listen to what Jesus says. Matthew ten seven and eight.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says, and proclaim as you go. What is it? That's preach. We're all preachers. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Proclaim as you go. Every one of you is living a sermon. He says, preach this saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does that mean? It means this, God is here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God's here. Whether you believe in him or not, whether you've experienced him or not, God is here. And listen, excuse me, listen to what he says. Heal the sick. You're like, I'm not a doctor.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're right, you're not. But you know who is? He is. He is. One of the words for doctor is Rafa.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you go to Israel, a doctor's office might say Rafa on it. Healer. Jesus was a doctor, he's a good one, amen? Amen. Look at this next one, raise the dead.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's go do that today, let's go find a dead person. Come on Lord, work. Now, I've been a pastor for thirty years. I've seen a lot of people die. And usually when people are dead, God has spoken.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But there was one time where a kid was dead and I prayed over him in the name of Jesus and he woke up. I mean, I don't mean like an hour later, I don't mean like the next day, I don't mean like he recovered after three months in the hospital. I prayed over him in the name of Jesus and I said amen and I said amen and he woke up. I was right there. He was in a hospital surrounded by doctors, some Christians, some non Christians.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me, here's what I want you to know. If you are not a Christian today, here's what I want you to There is a God and he raises the dead. He raised I I have seen it. I've experienced it. Now I don't know if you will.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know if you will, but I've seen it. I don't know if I'll see it again. But here's the thing, it happened. Now look at this next one, cleanse the lepers. Okay, now we don't have leprosy in our culture but we do have diseases that people struggle with where we're like, I don't wanna touch you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right, I don't wanna be around you. I mean, that's what the whole mask thing is about. The whole mask thing, people still wear them, it's saying this, you might have something that would infect me, stay away. As Christians, we're called to connect with people who might be contagious. We're called to minister to people who have a disease that could impact us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's what he says here, cleanse the lepers. Here's the thing Sandals, we get our hands dirty with things that people won't touch, people don't wanna talk about and we go to places where people won't go. And he says, cast out demons. Now some of you guys are like, I don't believe in all that. Well, you should, they believe in you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They believe in you. Here's the thing. If you go on mission with Jesus, he's gonna take you to places where you desperately need his power. Now, when you're a young person and you're in school, and let me just say this. You you you think elementary school's tough, you think junior high is tough, you think high school's tough.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look, that's the easiest time in your life to make friends. Amen old people? And then you get old and it's hard. That's right. So Tammy and I, we were talking, we said, you know what, we need some friends.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I had met this guy at the beach and he surfed, he was super cool, I liked him, he was a cop, he had a mustache like me, we were gonna go bust crime together. His wife was cool, she liked to walk, my wife likes to walk, she's a walker, you're a walker. I was like, hey. And so we said, let's get together. And my wife said, well, it could be weird.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I said, well, let's invite him out to ice cream because dinner, that's a commitment. So we went to ice cream. We went to ice cream with it and it was cool. They were cool, right? So we said, hey, let's do it again.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We did it again. Then we said, let's do dinner. And we did dinner and dinner was great, we talked all night. And then at the end of dinner, the wife turns to the husband. She says, are we gonna tell him?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says, if we tell them, they're never gonna go to dinner with us again. And I was like, great, they're swingers. I was like, I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They weren't swingers. But his wife, she said this, she said, I Googled you. I was like, oh. She said, you're a pastor. I said, yes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She says, what do you think of aliens? Yeah. We didn't have a class on aliens in seminary, just so you know. I said, okay what's going on? And she began to pour out her heart.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:These are real people, these are normal people, they have jobs, they have lives. She is being tormented by what she believed to be aliens. She believed she had been abducted. She believed she had been taken to an alien spacecraft. My wife is squeezing my knee under the table.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She's she's giving me the look guys and this is the look. Get me out of here. And I turned into Indiana Jones, I'm like what did they look Were they were they they tall and blonde? Little and gray? You know, I'm asking questions.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My wife is like, I hate you so much. But here's the thing, I said look we we need to we need to take this back to our place because I wanna pray over you. My wife is like, we are not bringing this into our home. I was like, we are. And so about two hours into our home, man, the wife is frazzled.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And by the way, the husband is not a Christian. He's of another faith. And I said, look, I said, I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't know if aliens are real. I don't know if you're losing your battle with mental illness.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And she looks at me and she says, you think I'm crazy. I said, that's not what I said. I said, and I don't know if these are demons. Listen to me. But I know who knows exactly what you're dealing with.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And his name is Jesus. Jesus. I said, and if it would be okay with you, Tammy and I would like to lay our hands and pray over you in the name of Jesus. Here's the thing, her husband who's not a Christian popped up, ran over, put his hands on his wife. And here's the thing, this this is what I want you to understand.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He is more pro his wife than he was anti christian. And we prayed over her in the name of Jesus. And here's the thing, you all know what I said? Lord, I don't know what this is. I don't know what this is, but you do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know who this is, but you do. And I know this, you have power to cast out whatever this is in the name of Jesus. Here's what I said, get this out. Listen to me, she was healed and her husband gave his life to Christ. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Real healing. And these are great people. These are great people who were afflicted with something that they felt like they couldn't share with anyone. You know, that's not something that you wanna bring up in small group. I was on an alien spaceship last night.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? Here's what I want you to know. The evangelistic vision of Jesus begins with healing. So last week Melody challenged us, right? The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his field. So what I want you to do is go back and look what Jesus was doing. He was healing. He was casting out demons. He was performing miracles.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Then he says, Lord, I want I want us all to pray to the Lord of the harvest for laborers. And then he sends the disciples out to heal, to pray, to cast out demons, to get their hands dirty and touch lepers that are untouchable. So here's my question. Who do you need to be praying for? Because here's the thing, here's the thing, we all are like, oh, I can't handle that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You you think you think like on my resume is alien abducted demonically possessed person? You think that's I put that on my resume? No, I I didn't know what to do. I don't want My wife is begging me to run. Run now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we can't run because God brought this to us. So I want you to think about who's a family member that you have right now that's losing their battle with the enemy. And here's what we do, right? We just ignore it. We all come from broken families.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We all come from issues that are huge, but I want you to hear me. Listen to me if you're a young person. Don't believe that it was just your parents' struggle. Don't believe it was just your mom, just your dad, just your grandparents. Listen to me, young people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What doesn't get repaired gets repeated. If you don't repair it, you repeat it. Guys, you have issues with your dad, you better deal with it or you're gonna have those issues with your son. Moms, whatever issue you had with your mom, you better deal with it or you're gonna have your issues with your daughter. What doesn't get repaired gets repeated.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus says, man, get in there. Get in there. Now how many of you have a friend? You have a friend that needs Jesus. I want you to write down their name.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:At the end of service day, we're gonna pray for them. I want you to write down their name. And I know they're tough and and and you don't Can I just challenge us as Christians? Here's the thing. You know who we invite to church?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Our kids are in little league and we find, oh, somebody's a Christian. Oh, we invite Christians to church. Yay. What about the people that don't go to church? Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know when I'm at the gym and somebody tells me they go to another church? You can ask pastor Andrew of Moreno Valley. He he's he's seen this. I just walk away from him. I'm like, oh, that's great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. There's two people I care about in this world. Lost people and people that go to sandals. That's it. You you you go to the grove, you go to harvest, great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I gotta work out. You know what I'm saying? You know, this doesn't come from just talking. You know what I'm saying? Because here's the thing, listen to me Christians, we love to talk to each other, that's great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wanna reach the lost. Amen. I wanna reach the lost. Have you guys looked around? There's a lot of lost people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's a lot of lost people. And here's the thing, we don't win people to Jesus by saying, did you know you go to hell if you died tonight? You know how we win the lost? We pray for their wounds. We pray for their hurts.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We pray for their diseases. I don't know what God will do but I know what he can do. And for those of you guys who are scared to death, work through this book. This book is me working through this. You wanna know what pastors feel?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Pressure to do miracles. I don't feel pressure. You wanna know why I don't have the power? I I don't know what God is gonna do. It would be so nice if he tweeted me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? Amen. Hey, Matt. That guy's getting a miracle. Thank you Lord.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'll go over there. I don't know what he's gonna do. I know what he's called me to do. Here's what he's called me to do, to pray. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And and and by the way, I I talk about this in the book. When I pray, I say, Lord, I don't know what you will do, but I know what you can do. In the name of Jesus, heal. How about this next one? Fellow church members.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Anybody get irritated? Anybody in here? Some of you go to other campuses. Yeah. Thank God there's 14 campuses at Sandals Church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Church people are hard. Right? You wanna know why that is? People are hard. Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everywhere is hard. People are hard. Amen. It is difficult.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But we are called to love each other. First Peter two seventeen says this, respect everyone. Look, be a respectful person. Be a kind person. Parents, raise your kids to be respectful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's biblical. It's not cultural, it's biblical. And love the family of believers. This is a family. Here's the thing, so many Christians give up on community because things get tough and they jump ship and go somewhere else.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing, you may write you you may just be missing out on a breakthrough. So push through it, work through it. Because one of the beauties I have is being your pastor for thirty years. Man, kid you not, it's amazing. Sometimes we interview people now at Sandals that I held as babies.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah, know, I'm not that old, but it kind of. But it's awesome. I'm watching a whole generation become staff members at our church, become leaders at our church, become ministers at our church and they know nothing but being real with themselves, God and others. And I can't wait to see what God's gonna do in the next generation. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Us old folks we had to learn it, they know it, amen. It's gonna be great. Alright, instead of talking about each other, what if we started praying for each other? Dear Lord bless Susie and her adulterous behavior. I think this is her sixth man.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. That is not how we pray. You ever been with somebody and they're praying to inform? Yeah. That's that's God's like, you're not talking to me, you're talking to those people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Pray for people. Oh, but they wounded me, they hurt me. Listen to Jesus. We covered this a couple of weeks ago. But I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If they've offended you, even if they've hurt you. Here's the thing, you wanna be a follower of Jesus, you have to learn to pray for even the people that have hurt you. Now if you go on TikTok, it's full of people talking about their church hurt, literally smearing the name of Jesus, smearing the name of God, the church is not a perfect place that's why Jesus Christ had to die. I wish instead of everybody sharing their hurt story, I wish we could just start praying for the church and for people in it because the church would be a better place. Next, the power of Jesus will lead me to help people I don't even know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People I don't even know. Now in just a minute, I'm gonna invite you to be a part of something that we're doing on August 22. It's a missions Friday. And there's some amazing things going on here at Sandals Church. But here's the thing, if you're truly gonna follow Jesus, he's gonna lead you to places you don't wanna go.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like some of you, you come up to me and you're like, if we start channels in Hawaii, I'm there. Well bless your little angel heart. You're just, you're so Christ like, know. Kauai here I come. Here's the thing, Jesus is gonna take you to places where nobody wants to go.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I've been to a lot of places in the world, a lot of beautiful places. I did not have a beautiful experience in India. But I had a tough experience. India is crowded, polluted, but the people are beautiful and God is moving in India. And so I went to India on a short term mission trip and I was overwhelmed by the sounds and the noise and the smog and everything going on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's our mission strategy. Our mission strategy is we met, we said you're going to go into a Starbucks and you're going to meet with somebody and try to get them to invite you to their house for dinner that night. Was like, this, that's like a stalker, you know what I'm saying? Invite me to your house so I can murder you. I was like, this is never gonna work, it's never gonna work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But this is what the missionary said, it's a different culture and once they meet you it would be an honor for them to have you over at your house. I'm like, whatever. So I go to Starbucks and I'm sitting there and I hear a person speaking English. I'm like, there's my person because we can communicate. So we sat down, we started talking, we had a great time and they got up and left and we actually exchanged numbers and I thought this will never work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And about 08:00 that night, they called me and said, we'd like to have you over for dinner. Because in India, they eat dinner at like 10:00 at night because it's so hot during the day. I went over to their house. They asked me, they said, why are you here? Why why are you here?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I said, we're here to share the love of Christ. And the wife started to cry and she turned to her daughter and said Honey, go get the painting that you painted last week. So I want to show you this photo. So this is a Hindu family in Mumbai, India and this daughter was struggling with depression, she's 13 years old, she said I was covered in darkness and one night in a dream she said there was light to me and it was breaking through the darkness and she painted a cross. I'm sitting there going, okay, this strategy worked.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This strategy worked. And I got the opportunity to share the gospel with this family and they were in tears and they thanked me. They couldn't believe that God would send not only a painting but a messenger to tell them what the painting was about. Amen? You have no idea what God wants to do through you if you just step out and share your faith.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay? Matthew ten eighteen, excuse me, Matthew ten eight through 15. Sorry, yeah, here we go. You receive without paying, give without pay. Part of being a Christian is contributing to your own mission.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says, acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey or two tunics or sandals or staff for the laborer deserves his food. Here's what Jesus is saying, let the people that you minister to take care of you. Trust me Jesus is saying, trust me. And here's the thing, in whatever town or village you enter, listen to this, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. This was the exact mission strategy that they gave us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Go to a Starbucks, see who invites you over to your house and when they do go there and share the gospel. I'm like this won't work. It's actually exactly what Jesus said. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what that family asked me to do before we left? Would you pray over our house? They never even read the Bible. Would you pray over our house? Would you pray the name of Jesus over our house?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was in tears. It was awesome. It's one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I never would have had it if I didn't go on mission for Jesus. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to it. Listen to me, not everybody is open to the gospel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's what I want you to know, when people reject the gospel they're not rejecting you. It's not about you. He says, and if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake the dust off from your feet and when you leave that house or town, truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land then it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah for that town. Here's what Jesus is saying, don't worry about it. Some of you guys are so worried about sharing your faith because you're worried they're gonna reject you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If they're rejecting you, you haven't shared the gospel. Share the gospel. And how do we do that? We do that by praying for people. How can I pray for you?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What's going on? What's going on? I love what Melody shared last week when she talked about when she was in the hospital for her husband's heart procedure and she's sitting in there and the Holy Spirit is telling her, hey, pray for that woman right there whose mom is in the hospital with the same thing. Man, that is so powerful. And remember what she said, if we miss the moments, we miss the mission.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's the thing, if we miss the mission, we miss the power. Here's the thing, Sandals Church, I'm I'm so pumped at what God is doing in our church. We have nine families in our church serving Jesus on mission reaching the nations right now. They've left our church, they live in other countries, I can't tell you where they are for their own safety but they have quit their jobs, they've gone through training, they're supported by us as a church and they live in other countries, other nations sharing the gospel, bringing the message of Jesus to people. We have four in our pipeline, this year we have a 130 people in our church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Instead of taking a vacation they took a short term mission trip. Like I did in India when I met that gal that you saw. This year alone we'll be in 10 different countries. Most of which I cannot even mention for safety reasons. Remember a couple of weeks ago when the war started between Iran and Israel?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I couldn't tell you this but we actually had people on the ground in Israel. I couldn't tell you that because we had to get them out. But we had people in a bunker, sandals people in a bunker to save souls. And that's our church, that's what God's causing us to do. Now he kept them safe, he brought them home and he changed their lives and he wants to change your lives.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen. So if this is something you're interested in, here's the thing, a 130 people want a mission trip, why not a 300 next year? Amen. Why not? Let's do this together.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's go on mission for Jesus. If you're interested, I want you to go to sandalschurch.com, live on mission. On Friday, August 22 at the Hunter Park campus right here, we're gonna have a gathering together. It's on a Friday night. I wanna invite you to come.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing. You're like, I'm scared. We're all scared. Everybody's scared. But just like the 12 disciples went, we want you to go.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now here's the thing, a lot of people today, you know they post on social media and we have all these social media people changing the world. Here's the thing, at Sandals Church, listen to me, we don't go on mission to gain people as followers. So we don't post a lot of stuff on social media about what we're doing. We we don't we don't go on mission to gain followers. We go on mission because we are followers, amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Of Jesus. Amen. And so here's the one point I want you to hear. The life you were meant to live is to bring hope and healing to the world through Jesus. That's the life you're meant to live, to bring hope and healing through Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're like, I can't do this. Amen. And never forget that. You can't do it. I can't do it, but Jesus can do it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we're gonna close with a time of prayer. And I just wanna confess this to you. When I was preparing this message Tammy and I were driving back from the beach together and we were in the car, we're stuck in traffic on the 91. You all know what that's like. And I told her, I said babe, I said, I'm so convicted by my message that I'm preparing this week.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That we don't pray enough together for God to to heal our wounds. Okay? And we have a lot of wounds and most of our wounds are from people because we work with people. And I said, here's the thing, I think the devil is holding us back. We need to pray tonight for Jesus to kick this wound out, for Jesus to heal our hearts because remember what we don't repair?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We what? We repeat. She was all on board and here's the thing, I'm gonna confess this to you. We went to bed that night and didn't pray. Had a great moment in the car and we didn't pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What do you think she told me the next morning? We didn't pray, pastor. Here's the thing, it's easy to talk about prayer, it's powerful to actually pray. So I'm gonna encourage you in just a moment. If you're married man and you're battling some things, maybe you need some deliverance.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You have some kid issues, teenager issues, maybe you need some deliverance. Man, you got financial issues, drug addiction issues, alcoholism, maybe you need deliverance. Let's not just talk about prayer today. Let's pray. And let's invite the same Jesus who who heals the sick, who raises the dead, who kicks out the demonically possessed, who heals somebody who's been on a spaceship with aliens.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's pretty cool. Let's invite him to change your lives. If you're married and you're sitting together, would you just hold hands and just say, God, pray for us, man. Because marriage is tough. If you're single, man, I I just want you to just lift up your hands and say, Lord, I'm connected to you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm married to you. I need your power. I need your help. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray in the mighty, powerful name of Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God, we pray for our kids. Protect our kids. We pray for our marriages. Lord, we pray for our jobs, our friendships, our family members. God, we pray for healing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We pray for a revival of healing. We pray for a movement of healing, we pray for a movement of miracles in our church Lord where we will just see your power, you will just unleash us to mission. Move in our hearts, move in our lives, move in our church, move powerfully Lord Jesus and let us exercise the authority you have given us. We pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We just wanna take a moment to say thank you for joining us here at Sandals Church online. We know that your life and your time is valuable, so it meant a lot that you joined us today. And we pray that you would be sent out with all the power of Jesus in your life to experience his healing, but also to offer that to other people in your life. And we wanna come alongside you as you learn to follow him on this mission. And we wanna encourage you to be a part of what God is doing and into our church.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so to support that work, can go to sandalschurch.com/support. Grace and peace, we'll see you soon.
Morgan Teruel:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have the YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.