Morgan Teruel: Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Hey, guys. Welcome to Sandals Church. I'm gonna start off today with a question. Anybody bored with TV? Okay.
Just me? Some of you are like, no. I'm I'm just enthralled, pastor. I have no life. I live vicariously through fakers.
I mean, actors. Right? But, you know, I've I've found myself bored. I spend more time on Netflix scrolling than I do on watching. You know, and I've become like my kids.
My kids used to be like, there's nothing on TV. I'm like, when I was a kid, you know, there were 3 channels. You had to move this antenna, you know, to get one channel in. My parents are like, when I was a kid, it went off at midnight, you know, and just like it just keeps keeps keeps going. And my grandparents were there was no TV when I was a kid and, but, you know, but here's the thing is psychologists are doing research.
You wanna know why we're so angry as a culture? So at each other's throats? It's not because things are worse. It's because we're bored. People are bored, man.
Like, you ever that way, like, you're married, just bored. Like, I'm gonna start a fight today because I need a little zest in this marriage. Like, your kids, you know when your kids are fighting, it's just they're bored. Who started? He touched me.
He touched me. He touched me. It's like, stop touching. It's boredom. It's boredom.
We're we're so many people today are bored. Anybody looking for a new TV show? New one? No. You don't wanna be honest.
Like, I read the Bible every day, pastor. I read the Bible. I don't watch television. How about a movie? Anybody feel like movies have just gotten lame?
Yeah. I know we have some directors in our church. Not your movies, but everyone everyone else's movies, right, are just are just lame. We need better movies. I like movies over TV shows.
I'll tell you why. Less commitment. Like like, I can waste 2 hours, amen? I can't waste a year. Some of you have some of you have done that.
Anybody, readers? K. I have a daughter, man. She when she starts reading, she just goes into a trance, and we lose her on vacation. You know?
Like, she can read for a month, not even eat, just get, you know, like, intravenous, you know, fed through a tube. She just read the book from start to finish, But I love a good mystery. Anybody love a good mystery? Like, I love it when I'm fooled. Like, I hate the people that already got it figured out, episode 1.
I love to be fooled, but I'm currently watching The Rings of Power. Okay? Yeah. Yes. Amen.
So it's by Tolkien, so relax. You know, Harry Potter. No. It's a Christian that wrote this. K.
It's a Christian. But I'm currently watching The Rings of Power. Man, listen to me. It's got hobbits, elves, wizards. Man, super cool.
All my millennial guys, wizard. I wanna be a wizard. Okay. I want you to be like Jesus, but, but listen. It's good fighting evil, but here's what I love about it.
You're not sure who's good and who's evil, kinda like life. Amen? Yeah. I love it. Some people hate it.
Some people hate it. It's okay. But I would love to talk about it. I would love to talk about it with you, but here's the problem. If you haven't watched it, me talking about it might ruin it.
Anybody have friends that spoil everything? Yeah. I remember with my kids one time, I was like, oh my gosh. I couldn't believe Spider Man died there. It's like they just they're like, yeah.
And I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I was so excited. I thought I wanted you to know something about a movie that was years ago. So if I if I blew it for you, that's on you.
But listen. If I gave you some details about the show, any details might spoil the ending. But I don't wanna talk about, The Rings of Power. I wanna talk about a different story today, a different mystery. What if I told you that there was a story that's so good, it's so good that you know how it starts, you know how it ends, but no matter how many times you read it, you're confused?
It's called the Bible. It's the Bible. We know how it starts. We know who wins. We're lost all the way through.
I didn't see that coming. Right? Look, it's a story where some of the people that we thought were the very best turn out to be evil, and some of the people that we thought were evil turned out to be the very best. You know, Jesus was crucified because they thought he was on Satan's team. Oops.
That's a bummer. You know? But Saint Paul wrote about this story in the book of Ephesians, and he doesn't call it the Bible. He calls it the mystery of God, the mystery of God. The word mystery occurs in the book of Ephesians 7 times, and I bet some of you've never noticed it.
You've never noticed as you read through the book of Ephesians the word mystery, mystery, mystery. So let me let me ask you a question. Are you bored with life? Are you depressed by life? Are some of you afraid of living life?
Man, I got this question on the debrief this last week. I'm afraid of die dying. Man, I think you should be afraid of not living. Death is inevitable. Life is not.
How about this? Do you feel alone in life? Then do you need a different mystery, a different mystery? Spice up your marriage, spice up your life, change your life, save your soul. So let me just pray over you, man.
So many young people tell you, I want you to listen to me. The reason you're bored is you don't know Jesus. There is nothing boring about Jesus ever, ever. You don't know what he's gonna do. He's gonna say eat me, eat this, go there, do that.
Like, you just you don't know. You don't know. So, yeah, somebody's like, oh my gosh. Yeah. That's actually in the Bible.
Read it. But let me just pray over you. Lord Jesus, send your Holy Spirit upon us. God, we are bored with life because we have forgotten the author of life. Heavenly Father, send us your spirit and awaken us to this mystery that you're calling us to.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Now we're jumping into Ephesians 3 today. Ephesians is a letter that Paul writes, Saint Paul, to the church in Ephesus. And in chapter 3, remember I said the word mystery occurs 7 times? 3 of those are in this chapter.
3 of those are in this chapter. And Paul begins in chapter 3 verses 1. He says this. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. I love this.
Assuming that you've heard of me. Yeah. You guys know who I'm Paul. I'm the Apostle Paul, right? I mean, he just says, Hey, I just want you guys to know this is the Apostle Paul writing you this letter.
He said, of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. You see, sometimes, we fail to recognize spiritual authority. We're a little slow with it. It's always amazing me you know, we got about 200 staff on sandals. Some of them call me bruh.
I'll just let you try to figure out which staff members that is, most of them work in youth ministry. That's all I'm gonna say. Bruh. You know? Some call me boss.
Some call me pastor. Some don't know what to call me. Right? They're just not sure. Master Pat is the weirdest one.
It's the weirdest one. But here's the thing is we're all slow to recognize spiritual authority. Every single church wasn't sure if they should listen to Paul. Every single church wasn't sure. So oftentimes, we hear from God, from the people of God when it's too late.
So I want you to learn to listen a little quicker when God speaks to you. So here's the first word. He says, I'm writing to you how the mystery do you see that word? The mystery was made known to me by revelation. The apostle Paul heard something different.
And there's a lot of Christians that say this, I just want Jesus, but not Paul. Listen to me. Paul knew Jesus better than you. Because the mystery of God was revealed to him by revelation. And let me tell you something.
There's so many Christians. Well, I just I just I just want to read the red letters. Look, you need to read all the letters, not just the red ones. They're all inspired by God. And the apostle Paul says, man, I was against Jesus, but now I'm for Jesus because I've received a special revelation from Jesus.
He says, when you read this, you can perceive my insight. Why should you read the Bible? You don't feel God? You're far from God? Man, you get to borrow Paul's insight to a personal relationship with Jesus when you read it.
And here's the thing. He's not only writing about his relationship with God, but the Spirit of God is in you, connecting you to God. He says, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the, here it is, the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations. Listen to me. If you're a Christian, you get to know things that Abraham didn't know.
You get to know things Moses didn't get to know. You get to know things that Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and David and and Solomon and all his wisdom and every biblical character, you have more information than they did, and yet you are less obedient than they were. He says it's now been revealed to his holy apostles and the prophets by the spirit. Here it is again, this mystery. This mystery is now that Gentiles are fellow heirs and members of the same body.
We talked about this on the debrief this week. So many Christians get all wrapped up in Calvinism versus Armenianism because they failed to recognize the author's intent of Ephesians. The problem is racism. It's not selection. It's not predestination.
It's who's in. And who's in? Everybody that's in Jesus' in, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. That's the beauty of Ephesians and are partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. How how are we chosen?
How are we predestined? Through the gospel. Oh, this gospel. He says, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. There's that word charis we talked about.
Which was given to me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints. Anybody feel insignificant, untalented? Paul says, I'm the worst. You know when Paul shows up to preach, you know what people said about him?
He's better in his letters. Like, when I see you guys, you're always, you look taller on the screen. Right? I I wanna say, you sound less smart in person. That's what I wanna say, but I don't say it.
I don't say I think it. I don't say it. He says, to me, though I am the very least of all the saints, he says, this grace was given to me, to preach to the Gentiles, people far from God, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring the light to everyone. What is the plan? Here it is.
Of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the church there's no plan b. The church is plan a. If we don't get it, nobody gets Jesus. Just so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known, and listen to this, to the rulers and the authorities, not in the White House, not in your house, but in heavenly places. You have no idea how big this gospel is.
Number 1, God has invited me, you, us, into his mysterious story. Man, one of one of my favorite movies in the eighties, one of my favorite movies, man, was The Never Ending Story. Now, if you got little kids, don't show them this. I made this mistake. I showed my kids.
The flying dog freaked them out. They are in counseling today because of that dog. But I love that, and here's the thing that's so beautiful about that. The boy who reads the story finds himself as a character in the story. If you're reading your Bible and you can't find yourself, then you're not reading this story.
Because it's not just a story about people who've come and gone. It's a story about you. You are to become a character in God's story. He's inviting you into his never ending eternal story. Some of you who grew up in church, you don't realize that every time Jesus talked about heaven, he told a story.
That guy's not true, pastor. It was a parable. Well, a parable is just an English word that we don't know what it means. Let me tell you what it means. Story.
Story. K? You don't go to the library. Kids, it's parable time. Nobody says that.
Story time. Mark chapter 4 verse 30. And Jesus said, listen to this, how can I describe the kingdom of God? Listen to this. What story, Jesus says, should I use to illustrate it?
You see, the only way that God can take you to heaven is through stories. He wants he wants to teach you a story. And so many young Christians, man, when I was a Christian, I was scared to death, man. I didn't wanna go to heaven because I thought you had to sing in the choir forever. You know?
King of the 2nd verse, same as the first. You know? I'm like, I hate choir on earth. You know? I don't wanna sing forever.
What am I gonna do in heaven? Psalms 1457 gives us a picture. It says everyone will share the story of his wonderful goodness. We're just gonna 1 up each other forever. You know?
I mean, I just don't wanna be in heaven with an astronaut. I met Christ on the moon. I'm like, I'm out. I'm out. You know?
Look. We're gonna share the stories, not of how we got trashed or stoned, but how we were saved and set free, how we were lost, but we became found, what God did with us in our lives. That's what we're gonna share. We're gonna hear the wondrous stories of what Jesus is doing. It says they will sing with joy about your righteousness.
It's not about you. It's about what God did in you and through you. You're writing a story right now, and for some of you, it's boring because it's not a biblical story. Look, say what you will, man. The Bible is not boring.
The Bible is not boring. Man, it's got witches. I know so. Oh, yeah. It does.
It's got adultery, murder, prostitutes. One of the prostitutes on our team. Yeah. You're like, what? Yeah.
She actually is so important in the story. She goes from prostitute to the great grandmother of Jesus. That's what the gospel does. It changes us. Some of you are like, God could never change me.
Yes. He can. But here's the thing. Not only is God inviting you into his story, but listen to me. I have an important role in God's story.
You have no idea. The apostle Paul says, though I am the least deserving of all God's people listen to me. If you walk in a church and you feel like you don't matter, then you don't know God. You mattered so much that he had his one and only son die on the cross to save you. There must be something about you that matters.
You ever notice anybody got friends that believe in reincarnation? It always cracks me up, man. They're always somebody important. Like, they're always the queen of England. Nobody was like, I changed the diapers for the queen of England.
Like, they're always super important roles, you know. I was the king of England. You don't look very kingly, you know, but here's what I think it is. I don't believe in reincarnation. Relax.
Okay. That's what the Bible teaches. You get one shot. Right? One shot.
Remember Eminem? One shot. The Bible says there's one time to live, then comes the judgment. It's not a merry-go-round. You don't go around again until you get it right.
One shot, so don't blow it. But you know what I think people that feel reincarnation is? What they're saying is I used to be important. I think they're looking in the wrong direction. They're looking backwards.
I think it's eternal life saying you were made to be important. And what they're saying is, I'm not living out God's vision for my life. There's gotta be more to this. Yes. Yes.
Paul said, I'm the least deserving of all the Christians, but he he graciously gave me the privilege, the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I got a friend of mine that text me. He said, hey, man. I'm sitting at a I'm sitting at a a coffee house up near Canada. He said, I met a guy, and he said, you changed his life.
I don't even know this guy. I never even heard of this guy. Now we'll meet in heaven, and we'll share stories. But, man, that's the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel can use you to change people's lives you don't even know.
He says, I was chosen to explain to everyone, here's the word, this mysterious plan. Why is it mysterious? God's not boring. You are. God's not.
God's not the creator of all things that he had kept secret from the beginning. And so so many of you are like, well, I wanna know what God's plans for me tomorrow are. I wanna know what God's plan for me. So many of the young people in our church are overwhelmed with life. And let me just say this to you.
If you're in your early twenties, I think that's the hardest part of life. We did not raise you up well for this. Like, nobody told you in high school, you're gonna have to work one day, you know, every day. Right? You're like, we don't get recess.
No. No. No. No. You don't.
But listen to this. Your early twenties is super hard to build your life. Why? Because you're finally starting to be accountable for not building your life. Yeah.
So so don't waste any more time. Stop hanging out with friends that are going nowhere because you're headed for eternity. And what's happened is we're pushing our twenties into our thirties, and now you're, like, 45. I wonder what God's plan for my life was. Well, it started, like, 25 years ago.
Yeah. Yeah. Remember that that fork back in the road? Yeah. Turn around and walk back.
But let me say this to you. Anxiety is always about tomorrow. Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow, for today has enough anxiety for itself. Listen to me. God's plans for me tomorrow begin with my obedience today.
Young people, you cannot stand where I stand in your fifties if you don't start in obedience today. You gotta start somewhere today. You want God to bless your relationship? Ask him to bless it today. You want God to bless your friendships?
Ask him to bless it today. You want God to bless your finances? Ask him to bless it today. How does he do that when you say I'm gonna be obedient today? I got a good friend of mine.
I love him to death. We were talking on the phone, and and he he makes tons of money but never has any. Anybody feel like that? You know what I told him? I said, I just want you to make enough money so you can start tithing, so God can start blessing.
He was like, woah. I was like, that's what happens when you know the pastor 1 on 1. I said, man, we we can't ask God to bless disobedience. I tell my children this all the time. We don't finance sin.
We don't do it. We don't do it. You want mom and dad's help? Then you follow Jesus. You wanna go on yourself?
There you go. There you go. I can't control you, but I do control what I bless, and I don't bless sin.
Morgan Teruel: Thanks for listening to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision here is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. At Sandals Church, we wanna see a movement of authenticity take place all over the world, and donating to the work of Sandals Church helps make that happen. If you wanna support this movement here at Sandals Church, I wanna invite you to visit donate.sc. Thanks again for listening, and God bless.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: So here's the thing is, God is inviting you into into his story, and your story, your part, you are not some character that gets written out of the story. Listen to me. Number 3, what I do in my role has an eternal significance for others. It matters not just today, but forever. Forever.
Some of you right now, you are listening to the enemy. I've never made a difference. I've affected no one. I've changed no one. That's the voice of the devil, not the voice of Jesus.
Right now, for some of you, you've got loved ones who are dead and they're in heaven and they're screaming at you. You changed my life, and you have no idea how. You have no idea how. Do you know there's people in heaven right now because of some of you? And you have no idea how grateful they are for what you said, what you did, what you meant.
Because it didn't just shape them in the moment, it shapes them forever. You wanna make an impact? Stop just thinking about whether or not you're going to heaven and start thinking about who am I bringing with me. Who's coming with me? I wonder if some of you are gonna be lonely on the 1st day of heaven because you didn't bring anybody with you.
No. You don't there's not gonna be a soul there that you know. My prayer is that when you get to heaven, it's it's not just a party with you and Jesus, but it's a party with you, Jesus, and everybody you brought, everyone you brought. And some of you, you're so afraid to talk to your friends about Jesus. You're so afraid to bring him to church.
Look at their lives. Look at their lives. I go and I work out every week, and and the gym that I work out with is a gym where, like, people are bodybuilders. And I sit in there, and I don't know why, but they put the exercise bikes in the room where they pose in the mirrors. You know?
So when I'm doing my warm up, I just got and I crack up, especially the young men. They're like 17, 18. They've worked out for 2 minutes, shirts off. They're like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Here's what old people know. I don't care how hard you work out. That goes away. That goes away. Like, young people are just like trash can.
You know? Then you get older, you eat parsley, and, like, boop. You know? It's just like, what happened? Here's the thing is, for so many of us, we're overly focused on things that don't matter, that don't last, that don't last.
Look, I don't care how nice your car is, it won't last. I don't care how nice your house is, it won't last. You know what lasts your soul? Start investing in it now and start investing in the souls of others. Ephesians 3:20, now all glory to God who is able through his mighty strength, not yours.
Listen to me. If you're a Christian, who is at work within us? Like some of you went to work this week, God went to work every day, every day to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. In a couple weeks, we're gonna celebrate celebrate 25 years of Sandals Church. Can you believe I mean, amazing.
There there were moments where I didn't know if we'd make it 25 weeks. I remember sitting in my small living room. Our first home was 850 square feet. That's where sandals started when we when we started. I had no idea what God had in store for me.
There were days that I never thought we'd get a building. We have 14. 14. There were days where I would say, pastor Sandals Church, people go, what? Who?
I mean, not everybody likes Sandals Church now, but they've heard of it. They're like, oh, yeah. Yeah. We're praying for that pastor. But, man, you know what I did this week with my life?
I went to our San Bernardino campus, and I walked around the campus. Listen to me what Sandals Church is doing. Right? The economy is crashing. The world is tanking.
Sandals Church is gonna build a 26,000 square foot teen center in San Bernardino. We're we're doing that. We're doing that. It's gonna have laundry facilities, counseling facilities, health facilities. Look.
Sandals Church is making such an impact. Non Christians and local officials wanna get involved. We have people from outside that are saying, man, we wanna be a part of that. We wanna be a part of that. Do you know that 90% of teenagers in San Bernardino live below the poverty level?
The number one reason they don't go to school is they don't have clean clothes. Sandals Church is gonna make a difference. In my wildest dreams, I never thought teen sinner. I I just wanted us to have sinner, you know, and not just for teens. All of us.
Amen. Like, we'd all be in the center, whatever whatever it was. Let me just ask you this. I wonder what you're saying no to 20 years from now because you're saying no to Jesus. Some of you, you're driving around a small house.
That's a small dream, and the Lord Jesus is like, I'd love to show the house I have for you, but you're too busy focused on your dream. And for so many of you, it will become a nightmare, and then you will blame God, and God's gonna say, you didn't live my dream for your life. Number 4, what I do in my role. I wanted to put this in the notes, but it's not. But I'm the pastor, so I'm gonna put it in.
What I do in my role is so important. So just write in your notes. So important. What you do is so important. Right now, you are being watched from heaven.
Think about that the next time you're scrolling through channels. There's nothing on. You know where the angels are having? They're looking at you. There's nothing on.
There's nothing on. Yeah. We've seen this before. I know there's, like, I know there's angels in heaven. Like, we're gonna tune into the Browns.
That's always a party. Oh, Matt and Tammy are fighting again. Turn it on. Everybody, get together. Get together.
Some of you have no idea you're being watching you're being watched. I was talking with a Christian. She's been in church her whole life, and I was talking about the watchers mentioned in the Bible, and she was like, what? I was like, no. It's in Daniel 413.
What? Yeah. Daniel was laying on his bed. Anybody ever get freaked out at night in your bed? Yeah.
Daniel did. Yeah. He said I saw visions in my head as I lay on my bed, and behold, wasn't just a vision. He said I saw a watcher. Now your Bibles would translate an angel.
It's not what the word means in Hebrew. It's watcher. Ear. That's right. Sounds creepy.
Eater. Yes. Eerie. Yeah. Perfect.
Right? He said a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. One of my favorite songs in the eighties. Anybody grew up in the eighties? Come on now.
Anybody nobody know old people in here? Yeah. A guy by name of Rockwell. I love it, man. Super paranoid rock star.
Man, you take drugs, paranoia, you get a great song. K? Great song. But he wrote a song called Who's Watching You? Who's watching you, man?
And all the old people are gonna remember this, but it starts like this. He's like, I'm just an average man with an average life. I work from 9 to 5. Hey, heck. I've paid the price.
All I wanna be is left alone in my average home. And then out of nowhere, Michael Jackson just comes right in. Bam. 21 year old Michael Jackson swooping in. He's like, I always feel like somebody's watching me.
Right? Bam. Out of nowhere. Right? Pre's note Pre's nose job.
Michael Jackson swoops in. Bam. He can still hit those notes. I always feel like somebody's watching me. It's not a feeling.
The Bible says it's a reality. You ever feel that way? What was that? Hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Could be an angel just saying, yeah, they've tuned in.
Let's see what, you know, the Melendres' are doing tonight. I wonder what's going on at the workman place. We're gonna scroll into Azusa. Sandals Church, Azusa. That's always fun to watch.
Yeah. Right? Somebody like, really? Really? Yeah.
Ephesians 310. Listen to me. Here's one of the mysteries that Paul lays out. So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of who God might now be made known to who? Who's watching?
To the rulers and to the authorities in heavenly places. You have no idea how big the universe is. Right? But instead of focusing on God's watching my life, we wanna argue over everything. Like, one of the most argued about, issues in the church today is the role of women, and one of the verses that comes up inevitably is when women speak in the church, they must wear coverings over their heads, and we're like, we gotta do that.
You know, we gotta we gotta go back and be biblical, and nobody ever pays attention to the why. You've probably never read it. I don't know, pastor Matt. Why is a woman should I wear a covering over my head? Paul says for the angels' sake.
I think he wants to know, you know, they're following us in heaven. Like, can you imagine watching a football game with no numbers? They wanna know what number you are so you can write it down. It's it's literally so the angels know who's who. It has nothing to do with men and women.
It's just so the people watching in heaven don't get confused. I know. Freaky. Freaky. And you're like, well, what should women do?
You're missing a point. You're missing the point. Paul's reason is in heaven. It has nothing to do with on earth. You see, in heaven, listen to me, dads, the heroes are not are not athletes.
In heaven, the heroes are not actors. Those are fakers. In heaven, listen to me young people, the heroes are not influencers. There's not an angel going, I got 17,000 followers. There's not angels in heaven dancing on TikTok.
Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. What are they watching in heaven? Believers, Christians doing the works of Jesus.
That's what they watch. And so we're like, well, Christianity is so boring, and the angels are screaming, do something. I'll pray about it. Can you imagine one angel saying to another angel in heaven, dude, bruh, I got the Matt Brown rookie card. Really?
Is it the one with long hair? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now think about this.
Who's Watching Me was one of Michael Jackson's biggest hits in the eighties. I wonder how different remember our series? Different. I wonder how different his life would have turned out if he had lived like he actually knew he was being watched. You see, some of you think everything that you do is in private.
Here's what Jesus said the day of judgment will be. It's all gonna be laid out in public. You see, so many of you, man, as Christians, you're worried about how many views you got on TikTok or Instagram. What if you started worrying about the amount of views you're getting in from heaven? You ever you ever watch let me pick on the men.
Right? Professional athletes got I love it when men judge professional athletes. You are so far away from their ability. It is not even funny. Like, if you put on pads for one second, you would die.
Like, you ever watch a fan run on the field, and then there's just an athlete just like, and we're done. You know? Like, the security cops, the mall cops can't catch them. The athlete, like, it's like a tiger hunting, you know, a one legged goat. You know?
It's just it's just it's just it's just unreal. But you do do you know what men do when a professional athlete makes a mistake? Oh, come on. What's wrong with you? We always do this.
Like, you're a part of the team. I wonder if angels look at Sandals Church. Oh, come on. Come on. Matt always does this.
This is so Sandals Menifee. Right? What's wrong with Hunter Park? Come on. Lake Arrowhead, you're close to heaven.
Step it up. Step it up. I mean, think about it. Sandals, Fresno, you harvest. Go win somebody to Jesus.
I wonder what the angels think about when they when they look at us, when they look at your family. Some of you are running, I don't have any skills. And they're like, use the ones you got. Like when guys, catch the ball with your hands. Can you imagine the angels, pray with your heart.
Ladies, they're tuning into you. Here she goes again, gossiping again. It's like a soap opera. Can you imagine just watching us for a second? I mean, some of you are so talented, you're on heavenly reruns.
You know? They're like, let's watch that one again. Luke 817. And Jesus said, for all that is secret I want you to think about all your secrets, will eventually be brought into the open. And everything that is concealed will be brought to the light and be made known to all.
You see, on judgment day, nobody's disagreeing with Jesus because everybody saw the tape from every angle. And, oh, by the way, the one accusing you is Satan. He's really good. He's really good. Let's get this from 360.
It's like you know? Number 5, what I do in my role may be dangerous. You know why so many of you are bored with your Christian life? You never risk anything. Some of you've never risked a thing for your faith.
That's why so many of you struggle with giving. It's it's a risk. You you've never gone all in for Jesus. Some of you've never even gone partially in. You see, what I do in my role may be dangerous, but it should never be boring.
If you're bored in your faith, you're not following your faith. How does Ephesians 3:1 begin? For this reason, I, Paul, a what? A prisoner. What kind of stories would we hear from sandalites if we just went around the room and everybody that's been incarcerated would share how and why?
It'd be fun. Right? We'd all be a little nervous. I wonder what would happen then if we just asked of our church. There's 30,000 people at Sandals.
We got to hear all the stories of incarceration, and then we just said, okay, who's gone to jail for Jesus? Crickets. Crickets. Well, I feel persecuted at Disneyland. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing, Sandy. We appreciate that. You're a hero. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, assuming that you've heard of me. What's your story gonna be for Christ?
What's your story? Assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's gracelessness that was given to me for you. Listen. Man, if you've been to prison, I love you. Sandals is a safe place for you.
I always love it when I see the ankle bracelets at our church in the lobby. Yeah. Hi. I'll be super nice. How can I pray for you?
Yeah. You know, welcome. But the thing that makes me sad is, will any of us ever wear an ankle bracelet for Jesus? You know what your kids don't wanna go to church? They look at your faith, and they go, that's boring.
That's boring. Look, I get a lot of criticism from my preaching. I know it's hard for you to believe. One thing I've never heard ever in my life, boring. Boring.
Whoever told you church should be boring? Man, some of you are missing out on the life that God's called you to. What story are you gonna share in heaven? Paul was in prison. Yeah.
One time I got a dirty look because I prayed at a restaurant over my food. Oh, wow, man. Did you get a tattoo representing that? Like, you know, because you're hardcore. Come on.
Ephesians 314, may you experience the love of Christ. Listen to this, though it is too great to understand fully. There's more to your faith than you know. Maybe the reason you're bored is you haven't tried it yet. Then you will be made full, complete with the fullness of life and the power that comes from God.
You see, in your story, so many of you, you play the victim. In God's story, you're victorious. You always win. You always win. Imagine the confidence you would have at every sport, every time you played a board game.
Like, if I was if I knew I was gonna win, you would never wanna play with me because I'm gonna dominate. But you guys are always figuring, oh, I might lose. No. We know the beginning of the story, and we know the end. We have no idea how it unfolds, but we win.
We win. Can you imagine if we knew we won the Super Bowl and it's halftime, we're all crying? It's like, bro, did you did you not watch the ending? We we win. Stop crying.
Get up and get in the game and play your part. That's right. Play your part. But listen to me. You need to you need to hear me correctly.
I can only have a place in God's story. This is huge. Ephesians 3. If Jesus has a place in my heart. Paul says this, when I think of this, God's story, God's mystery, listen to this.
He says, I fall to my knees. He's so moved by the story of God that he falls to his knees, and he prays to the Father, the creator of everything in heaven and on earth. He says, I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources this week, everybody's playing the lottery. Oh, it's 550,000,000. That is chump change compared to what God has.
He doesn't play the lottery. He is the lottery. And you can win. You can win. I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources, he will empower you.
Anybody wanna be empowered? Why would God empower you to sit on the bench? Lord, I need more power so I can sit here. He doesn't need any more Jim Gaffigan Christians. I could go outside, but that would take work.
That he would give you strength, inner strength through his pure spirit, through his spirit. Yeah. Think about that. Inner strength through his spirit. And your roots will grow down into God's love.
What does God's love do? Keeps you strong. Why would God need to strengthen you? Because you're so busy in this story, you've run out of your own strength, so you need God's strength. And may you have the power to understand, listen to this, as all God's people should, every single one of you who calls yourself a Christian should know how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is for us.
Do you know that? Do you know that? If you don't, you need to know that God loves you and the way that you experience His love is by having Jesus Christ in your heart. Listen to me, He can change your story. Some of you right now in your marriage, you've already written your ending.
Divorced, he can change that story. Some of you written this story, I'm no good. I'll never be anything. You can change that story. You can change that story with one decision, one decision.
I feel alone, I feel bored, you can change that story, it doesn't have to be boring anymore. Our church groups and our church life should be the most exciting life there is because we are following the author of life and every day there is a new mystery that is revealed. And it is never boring unless you're in your own story. You're running your own life, you're living your own life, and that can change today. And all you have to say is, God, I want my story to change.
And it begins with repentance, it means I'm gonna turn away from my life and I'm gonna turn to God's life. I'm no longer gonna go my way, I'm gonna go the way of Jesus, that's why it was called the way in Ephesus, a different way from everyone else. Listen to me, there are more things in this world today to entertain you than any other time in history and yet we're all bored. Maybe you weren't made for entertainment, you were made for enlightenment. Jesus does not want to entertain you, he wants to enlighten you.
And for that to happen you have to pray right now, God enlighten you, enlighten me. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes and if you wanna be enlightened, would you just say, Lord Jesus I'm ready to turn from my life, my sin, and I'm ready to turn to you. I'm tired of this boring mundane life and I am ready for the thrilling exciting life of the gospel, the life that Paul had. God, I wanna have stories to tell in heaven and so I want that to change right now by you changing my story right here. For that to happen, you need to invite the author of life into your life right now and just say, Lord Jesus, I turn from my sin, I raise my white flag, and I give my life to you.
Change my story today. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.