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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 Rocky. I'm the campus pastor at Sandals Church Menifee. We're so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this incredible message. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people.
Pastor Rocky Stone:But for now, let's get into this message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How many of you guys would say that you're not living up to your full potential? Raise your hands. Come on. If your hands not up, you're probably lying. That's another message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But all of us know that, right, there's probably more in the tank. We we could do more. We could be better. If you're married, you know, you feel like you could be a better spouse. If you're raising kids, you feel like you could be a better parent.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're a Christian, you're like, oh, man. I need to give more. I need to serve more. So we all have this idea that there's more in the tank. I wanna talk to you today about unlocking your full potential.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing, potential really is a dirty word until we tap into it. Because potential is not real until we we begin to stretch and we begin to grow. And the reason so many of us don't unlock our potential, it's because unlocking our potential hurts. It takes suffering. It takes growth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if growth was easy, everybody would do it. And so we're gonna look at an amazing amazing just conversation between a mom, her two sons, Jesus, and then his response for all of us. It's an amazing amazing conversation. So if you're taking notes, want you to write this down. To unlock my full potential, that's everything, all of your God given talent, of your God given ability, to unlock my full potential, I must, look at this, invite others to help me discover my gifting.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:One of the things I see over and over in our church today is many of you have never had someone speak about your gifting, speak about your ability. And so here's what happens. Some of us are so focused or excuse me. Some of us falsely believe we're no good at anything. Some of you parents, you're raising kids, like, I'm I'm no good at anything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't have any abilities. I don't have any skills. And and one of the reasons for that is kids that grow up in academics. Right? Really, they have really three avenues to be awesome.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:One is academic. That wasn't me clearly. Amen? One was, you know, athletic. I was okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And the other, you know, is relationships. That was where I was best at. But oftentimes kids feel like if I'm not good at any of those three things, I'm no good at all. And what we need to do especially with young people is help them find their ability, help them find their talent. And I want you to notice here just how this conversation begins.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So some of us, we don't we don't feel like we're we're good at anything at all. And I just want you to know that's not true. That's the devil. K? You are not you are not trash.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You are God's treasure. He loves you. Now look at this. Some of us are so focused on others, I e social media, get off Instagram, okay? Some of us are so focused on others we cannot see ourselves.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so this is what this is what happens. So many young people today, you know, you're constantly on the screen. And if you look long enough, you're gonna find somebody smarter, prettier, or wealthier. Can I get an amen? Some of you are like, well, I'm still looking for that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. Captain prideful. But but here's the truth is, listen to me. If you're a young person, you're beautiful. Can we get an amen to that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're beautiful. One day you will get old and ugly. It will happen. Okay? You know why you know why 50 year olds don't pull post selfies?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We don't wanna see it. Okay. I walk by the mirror in my house and it's like Sasquatch, you know, who is that? So when you're young, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, yeah. You know, and you're gonna have to explain to your grandkids why there's 10,000 pictures of you eating food. So that's gonna be a weird conversation. But here's the truth is, when when we're focused on others, when I'm on Instagram, everybody's on vacation. I don't wanna work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everybody's more beautiful. I feel ugly. Everybody has more money. I feel poor. And so what happens if we're overly focused on others, we don't notice the beautiful amazing things that God has placed in us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so this is why we need to invite others to help us discover our gifting. So in Matthew twenty twenty, let's look at this. Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. Now let's pause right here. Let's go back.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let's pause right there. Now we all didn't have this mom. Some of your mom was like the one that told you, you're no good, you're ugly, you're fat, you know, you're gross, whatever. James and John have a good mom. And let me say this, if you didn't if you weren't raised with good parents, you need the church more than anybody else.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because you need a spiritual mother, you need a spiritual father that can speak words of wisdom, truth and gifting in your life. So get into discipleship group, serve on a team, let somebody notice you, let somebody see you and let somebody speak words of gifting over you. Now, if you're a parent here today, one of the things I've noticed, so we don't have little kids anymore, we don't have teenagers, we have adult children. Listen to me parents, my kids still need me to speak gifting over their lives. I literally had a conversation in my car with my 20 year old daughter and she said, dad, what am I good at?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What am I good at? And by the way, that's our role. Here's what you're good at. Here's what you're amazing at. Here's what you can do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we need to encourage that. So these two boys, right? They got a great mom and and and she came to Jesus with her sons. Now look at this. She knelt respectfully.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So a lot of times when you hear this sermon, you'll hear pastors really criticize this mom. You know, they'll kinda take this avenue of well, she's prideful. This is ridiculous. Here, I want you to notice that Jesus doesn't criticize her at all. He actually receives this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. And Jesus says, what is your request? And she replied, in your kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left. Man, listen to me parents, here's your number one job, to make sure your kids stand on your shoulders not underneath your foot. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So many parents today are jealous of their kid's success. You need to build them up. You need to encourage them. You need to lift them up because the world's already trying to tear them down. As parents, our job is to help lift them up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now some of you parents are ridiculous because you're like, my son's the next LeBron James. And I look at you, I look at LeBron, it's not happening. You don't look like him and your kid ain't gonna be him. Can I get an amen? You know, maybe your son can coach but they will not get paid to play.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen for coaching, right? That's my only shot. So here's what I want you to see is we all need this. We all we all need somebody to know us, see us and speak gifting over us Because it's human nature to see our flaws. It's human nature to see what we're not good at.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that's why Instagram is so poisonous. Oh, I can't do that or I could never be that. And so we see everything that we're not, We need people to help us see what we are. So here's a mom. She says, I got two sons, James and John.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And by the way, moms, these two boys are amazing. K? Their nickname is the Sons of Thunder. That's that's not bad. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Mean, I if you were in a WrestleMania, that's a great name. The Sons of Thunder. So I I was I was at a pastor's retreat last week and and this mom, she has she has a son and a daughter and they are amazing Christian just leaders in America. And I was like, we gotta get her a t shirt that says leader breeder. You know what I'm saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was just like, nobody else thought that was funny. I thought that was hilarious, know. Leader breeder. But parents, that's what we wanna be. We wanna be leader breeders.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We want to I mean, doesn't the world need great leaders? Doesn't the world need godly spiritual amazing people? I mean, we don't just want non Christians to have talent, we want Christians to be talented. And so we all need this, a pastor, a friend, a therapist, a professor, a teacher. And by the way, listen to me if you're a public school teacher, I remember specifically in high school feeling very, very small, very inadequate.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't know yet that I had well, I knew that I had ADHD. I just didn't know what it was called. But I didn't know that I was dyslexic and I was really struggling. And by the way, I found out I was graduating on the day of graduation. Can I get an amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They were like, yep, we want you out of here. Just go. Just go. My poor parents. I love them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I had a teacher. Her name was miss Memola. And I don't know what happened to her. But if anybody knows her out there and and you run into her on Facebook or whatever, mean, many miss Mamolas can there be? But she was the first person that ever saw me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And she said, you're talented, you're gifted. And I can still remember those words to this day. It's been almost forty years and those words still ring true. And that's one of the reasons why listen to me, working with kids is so important in this church. Because sometimes the only positive words they're ever going to get is when they come to church and a person leading kids ministry or youth ministry says, I see you, you're beautiful, you're amazing, you're loved, you're talented, you're gonna make a difference in this world.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So James and John, they got a great mom. They won the parent lottery. Some of you didn't. And so that's why you need church so much more. And some of you say, well, okay, well, does this work?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I don't have her as my mom. It's what, like I said, it's why you need the church. So listen to what Paul says in first Timothy four fourteen. He's writing to a young pastor who's discouraged, who's anxious and overwhelmed. Does that describe anyone today?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Discouraged, overwhelmed and anxious. You're like, I can be a pastor too. Yes, you could. He writes him and he says, do not neglect the spiritual gift you received. And here, I want you to notice the language here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How did he receive this gift? Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you. Do you hear that? The power of words. Some of you, you can remember somebody saying you're ugly, you're fat, you're gross.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They don't love you, they don't like you. We remember the power of negative words. We need to remember the power of God's Word over us. You're loved, you matter, you have giftedness, you're gonna make a difference. So listen to this, you receive through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was just at a birthday party this week for a 15 year old girl in our church and she looked beautiful and it was amazing. And what's amazing is her grandparents were the pastors of the first church I ever got a job at. And it was the first church I ever preached at. You wanna hear a bad sermon, go and find that one. Thank God, thank God the internet wasn't out there yet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's just a rumor, but it was bad. But do you know after I preached my first sermon, the piano player at their church came up to me and I'll never forget this. He said, God is gonna do great things in your life. He said, God is gonna use you, listen to this, to reach thousands. I was scared to death to preach in front of 10 people, much less thousands.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we were sitting there over pizza at a restaurant reminiscing about how important those words were for me as a young pastor. And to all of our pastors who are learning to teach, learning to preach, don't be discouraged. I used to be terrible too. My first sermon, I my first sermon, I preached on the entire book of James in one sermon. The whole book.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because I was scared to death I was gonna run out of content. So I was like, let's open our Bibles to James. And it was probably awful. And thank God it was not recorded. But I didn't give up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And listen to me, I trusted in the words that were spoken over me. And I let those be my rock when I felt insecure, when I felt like I wasn't any good. And I just trusted that and I kept working at my gift. It doesn't come out great right when you start, but you keep working at it and you keep working through it and God's gonna bless you. So don't give up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So next to unlock my full potential, I must look at this, embrace the difficult road to personal growth. So here's why people don't grow because it's hard. It always cracks me up, man, when I see people at the gym, I say, hey, you having a good time? Especially ladies, ladies are just too honest at the gym. So many women are like, I hate it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I hate every minute. I hate every second. I set my stopwatch to get out of here. Man, look, if growth was easy, we would all do it. If health was easy, we'd all be healthy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We'd all be fit. We'd all be in shape, but we have to work at it. Here's the thing, the older you get, the more you gotta try. People ask me when I'm training at gym, are you training for? I'm like, I'm training against death.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like when I was younger, like it was for something, right? I'm gonna do a show, I'm gonna do a race. Now it's just like, no, no, I'm battling death. And listen to me, you're getting older, it gets more difficult. Like I hurt my rotator cuff and literally my doctor's like, what'd you do?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was like, nothing. It just quit. So we've gotta do this. And here's the thing, the older we get, we gotta work through this. So Jesus says in Matthew twenty twenty two, so right mom says, hey, I want my sons to sit at your left and your right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She sees talent in them. She sees that they're gifted. And by the way, are they gifted? Yes, Jesus picked them. Just like he picked you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Matthew twenty twenty two, but Jesus answered by saying to them, you don't know what you're asking. Listen to me, the road to greatness is difficult. It's why few people find it. In order for me to be the speaker that I am today, I had to listen to criticism. I remember the first time a pastor came to hear me preach, Sandal started to grow and he's got great message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He said, you said, you know, 27 times. I was like, you know, is not in my notes, you know? He didn't listen to one word, he just started counting 27. And it's hard, it's hard to let somebody critique you. But here's the thing, if you don't invite others to help you get better, you won't get better.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus says, you don't know what you're asking. He says, are you able to drink? Look at this, from the bitter cup of suffering I'm about to drink. The road to greatness is the road of suffering. Are you willing?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Are you willing to do it? Like if you're gonna lose weight, it's going to be difficult. Okay, the road is not paved regardless of what pastor McDonald's, I mean McVeigh said last weekend. Sorry, a little slip there. The road to health is not paved with Big Macs.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's not paved with Snickers bars, it's paved with difficulty. It's hard to tell yourself no, and many people can't do it. Oh, yes, they replied, we're able. And let me tell you, conceptual suffering is way easier than real suffering. It's really easy to be like, I'm gonna work out this year.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna get in shape. And then you go there and you're on the treadmill, you're like, this is really bad. Why do people do this? Not many people do. So I wanna talk to you about the five steps of suffering.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is just something that I've come up in my mind as to why people don't make it through hardship. And by the way, it doesn't have to be about losing weight. This can be about your marriage. This can be about your finances. This can be about your relationship with God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's what I've noticed over the years. Most people give up before they become great. Most people do. That's why people don't become great. And I want you to become great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I want you to work through these steps that I've noticed in my own life. The first step of suffering is this, I won't. So some of you, you won't go to the gym. You just I won't. You refuse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You won't work on your marriage. You won't go to a counselor. You won't go to church. You won't consider God. You just won't.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing, if you don't ever get past this, you'll never grow. You'll never change. Your life will never be all that it's called to be. And some people just won't. I won't listen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I won't pray. I won't eat right. It's the refusal stage. Listen to me, God will only bless what you're willing to do. Let me say that again.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He will only bless what you're willing to do. And some of you, you want God to bless areas of your life that you're unwilling to change. You want him to change everything and you are unwilling to change anything. So I won't. The next stage is I can't.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, I've been here. It's a self doubt stage. I'm not smart. I'm not in good shape. I have bad genetics.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm not good at relationships. I can't pray. So we go from I want, I won't to I can't. And we just beat ourselves up. Well, let me tell you something, you haven't yet, but you might be able to.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I want you to know that I've had to work through things like this, so God calls me to preach and teach people about his word and listen to me and I can't read. Can we all agree that's a problem? I did not read a book until I got out of college. The way I got through college is I found a professor who lectured and I just listened to him talk And he told us everything that was on the test and that's how I got to college. So so here's the thing is, and now I can read and I could read in English and Hebrew, whatever, you know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I'm just showing off, sorry. But here's the thing, some of us can never get past the I can't. And people tell me all the time, I used to run marathons. People would say this, oh, could never do that. So we haven't yet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you know what? I couldn't either the first day I went out the door with running shoes on. I couldn't. I couldn't do a five k. So next stage is, look at this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's the I will. Now you haven't done it yet, but it's the decision. I will work on my marriage. I will fight for my marriage. I will be a better parent.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I will go to church. You make the decision. This is the year and this is so important that you write this down and you say, this is what I'm gonna do. And this is where social media is helpful. You you let people hold you accountable.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You say, I'm gonna go to church this year. I'm gonna read my Bible this year. I'm gonna work out this year. I'm going to therapy. I'm gonna do this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I will. You make the decision. And here's the reason why you never get here. To find the will, you must find your why. See to make the decision you will work on your marriage, you have to find your why.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So when Tammy and I, man, we were struggling. We were struggling. We had a one year old kid and one on the way, and we did not like each other. She didn't like me more than I didn't like her. And so here's the thing is divorce was something we were really considering.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I just want you to think for a second about my life if I got divorced. Sandals Church would never be here and you may never be where you are with God. So there was a lot hanging in the balance here. And I didn't wanna stay. Who wants to be married to a woman that doesn't like them?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, like guys if you're single, I don't know on your list of priorities, but her liking you should be in the top five. Just a suggestion. And I would go to seminary, go to work, come home to a wife that didn't like me. It was tough. So to find the will to stay married, to find the will to go to counseling, I had to find my why.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here was my why. I made a commitment to God, that was why number one. Why number two was we had a one year old and she didn't deserve to have her life screwed up because her parents couldn't figure it out. Those were my whys. And that's not to guilt anybody who's gone through divorce.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I had to find my why to find my will to stay married. Because I didn't have the will, I had to find it. Next, this is huge. The I am stage. This is the confidence stage.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I am doing it. And by the way, this is where the enemy messes us up. You go to the gym and he's like, you're never gonna lose weight. You go to church, you're never gonna follow God. You tell the devil I am at church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I am at the gym. I am doing it. And by the way, if you're married and it's not fixed yet, you are in counseling. You are working on it. And you have to stand in this phase.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I am doing it. It's the confidence stage. Oh my gosh, I went to the gym. There's a whole book written on this about a guy who would just go to the gym for two minutes every day. He literally would walk in, sign in, walk around, go to the bathroom and go out.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He just developed the I am a gym person. And then one day he actually like did something. He's like, oh, I did that. And just slowly over time he created the habit of being someone that goes to the gym. And he would just tell himself, I am here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I did this. That's the confidence stage. And this is so important. You say, I went to church this week. I read my Bible today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I prayed today. I am doing this because the devil is gonna tell you can never do it. You can never be it. No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. No. And then next, the I did. The celebration stage. Man, Tammy and I are gonna celebrate thirty years of marriage this year.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can you believe that? Thirty years. Listen to me, it's easy to say I do at your wedding. It's another thing to say I did. I did.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We did it. And you know why we celebrate that? Because it's not just the great times that I love, it's the hard times. It's the hard times. And it's so important.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus says, are you willing to suffer the bitter cup that I am suffering? And if you go back up, Jesus says in verse 17, what's gonna happen to him? He's gonna go to Jerusalem. He's gonna be betrayed by his own religious leaders. They're gonna beat him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're gonna flock him. They're gonna whip him. They're gonna crucify him and he's gonna die. He's saying, are you guys ready for this? And like, yeah, yeah, Lord.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah, yeah. And then yet, do you remember what happens? When he's arrested, they all run. You see, it's easy to conceptually say I'm gonna suffer. It's easy on a wedding day to say until death do us part.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then you get married, you're like death ain't that bad. But here's the thing, listen to me. We need to raise our children. One of the reason kids are struggling so bad today is they don't know how to encounter difficulty. They don't know how to manage no.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They don't know how to lose, everybody's a winner. You know, I learned early on how to lose. Amen? I remember a soccer game, we lost like 17 to zero. In the eighties, they counted every goal.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There was no mercy rule. You just had to bleed until the ref blew the whistle. It's true, 17 to zero. James one:two-four. He says, Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, financial trials, spiritual trials, health trials, right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Relational trials of many kinds. Look, there's all kinds of ways to be stressed out. He says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith, listen to this, develops perseverance. Listen to me parents, here's why you need to let your kids struggle a little bit. It makes them better.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you fix everything for them, what are they gonna do when you can't fix it? They're gonna be a mess. They're gonna be a mess. Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. And perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When my kids were in high school, I said, you gotta pick a sport. And because they're all athletic like me, were like, no sport. We're gonna be academic. I'm like, yeah. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I know your dad. This is not happening. And so I told my daughter, if you don't pick, I'm picking for you. And so I picked mountain biking because that's what I liked. And I said, I gave you an opportunity.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so I remember she was on a race, was race day, she's bawling her eyes out and she's like, dad, dad, dad. She said mountain biking is so hard. And you know what I said? So is life. Go.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Go. Right? There's gonna be ups, there's gonna be downs, there's gonna be crashes, there's gonna be bleeding, there's gonna be cutting off. Go. You know what she tells me now she's almost 30?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She says, dad, thank you so much. You know why? Now she's married. Now she has a kid. Know it's hard marriage.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Know it's hard finances. Know it's hard raising a one year old. I get him when he's all fun and when he's not I'm like, there you go. He's yours. Oh my gosh, he's starting to do the I was like, here it comes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here it comes. A little sinner was in there. I knew it. I knew it. Listen, if you're dating, listening marriage is hard.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's super easy when you're all into each other and you're so sexually attracted, you can't think straight. It's another thing when maybe you're not attracted at all but you made a commitment to God, to your family, and to your friends and you gotta work through it. Right? You gotta find your why. To unlock my full potential, I must look at this, trusting God's plan for my life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let me just help you out. It's not all equal. It's just it's just not. And that's one of the big political fights in our country, right, is we wanna make everything equal. There's gotta be equity of outcomes and that's the challenge, right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like here here's the new have anybody noticed that some kids were raised with more money than your parents had? Anybody knows that? Now see in the eighties, we didn't know about it because we were all in our own neighborhood. We had no idea there were rich people across the river. But now you're like, woah, there's a river?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, you didn't even know. And rich people are idiots. They're like, oh, look at me and look where I went. I'm like, stop doing that because one day the peasants are gonna take it all. Stop.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're coming with the pitchforks. Tell your rich friends, stop doing that. You know, go on vacation in secret. But here's the thing, life's not fair. Like some of you, you didn't have a mom, you didn't have a dad.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And by the way, if you had two parents, you started life on second base. Second base, some of you, you didn't even start life on first base. Amen. You're not you didn't even make it to first. You're like when I was four years old, was running first.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So life is hard. It's not fair economically. It's not fair racially. It's not fair with gender. It's not fair with economics.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Life is challenging. And here's the thing is instead of being bitter for what you don't have, why don't you thank God for what you do have? And just understand that man, you got you gotta trust God's plan. Look, don't I don't know what's happened to in your life, but I know this, God has a plan for you. And he is going to work out his will in your life and his plan for you is different than it is for me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You wanna be bitter about your life, compare your life to my life. If I wanna be bitter about my life, I'm gonna compare my life to your life. And that's what the world is doing. Instead of embracing the joys of what they have, they look at everyone else and what they don't have and they're bitter and they can't stand their life. Listen to Jesus, Matthew 20.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus told him, you indeed will drink from my bitter cup. What is he just saying? Oh, you're gonna suffer. You're gonna You guys have no idea what you're gonna suffer about. He says, you will indeed drink from my bitter cup, but I have no right to say who will sit on my right and on my left.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wanna pause here. If Jesus understands that God the father has a plan and he has to submit to it, what does that say about you? If you can just be like Jesus and say, you know what? It didn't go the way I planned. It's not what I wanted, but I'm gonna trust that you have a plan.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you can be like Jesus, I think you'll be a happier person. We talk a lot about rights in our country. And one of the reasons I think young people are increasingly bitter is the list of rights keeps growing. It keeps growing. And so what I would encourage you to do as a Christian is is be really careful about what you consider a right because Jesus just said, I have no right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The son of God just said, I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. Listen to what he says. My father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen. Let me just help you out. Life is not your story.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's God's story and you are a character in his story. And the sooner you figure that out, the happier you're gonna be. But if you make life your story and you're the main character, you're gonna be miserable because you're not the author and you can't change the pages. You can try. Let me know how it goes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord, I think we should change this paragraph right here. Why don't we alter this chapter? Now I'm not saying that you just sit back and let God do whatever. Listen to me. I'm saying you go for it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You try to be the best person you can be. Man, if you gotta make money, make money. If you wanna get married, get married. You wanna stay single, stay single. I'm not saying you don't have agency.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm just saying this, you cannot thwart God's plan. So God is not telling James and John not to be awesome. He's not telling them not to be excellent. He's not telling them not to get married. He's not telling them not to do this or that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's just saying, look, when it comes down to who sits at my right and my left, that's for God. There are some things that are out of our control and it will make you miserable when you try to understand that. Then the 10 other disciples heard what James and John asked, and they were indignant. And you're like, what does that word mean? I don't know I don't know why when they the translators think sometimes they're like, let's pick a word that confuses everyone.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Indignant means angry or annoyed. Isn't that great? So they were angry. They're angry that James and John have the audacity to be number one and number two. And why is that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because they all wanna be number one and number two. Oh, actually, they can't be number one and number two because Jesus is number one, two and three. Amen? Can I get an amen? Like, you're number one Jesus, but we're two and three and I prefer two.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? Like, so here's the thing. We can all make our plans, but we don't get to decide. Proverbs nineteen twenty one, many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Life's not fair.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the sons of Thunder, they both love Jesus. They're both loved by Jesus. They both wanna serve Jesus. Some of you, you don't know your Bibles the way that you would like, but they have very two different outcomes for following Jesus. James is the first disciple murdered for his faith in Acts chapter 12.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do you know John is probably the last disciple to die. So one dies way too young and one dies way too old. And we can drive ourselves crazy. It's not fair. I don't know why.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It hurts. I don't like it. Here's the thing. Listen to me. I don't understand God's plan, but I have to submit to it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if we're not careful, listen to me. We're gonna get really upset, really angry and instead of following God, we're gonna follow our emotions. I want you to write this down. Emotions are a mirror, not a map. If you follow your emotions, they will take you off the road that leads to life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Emotions are a mirror, they're healthy. They let you know how you feel, what you feel, what you think. They let you express yourself, but it's a mirror not a map. This is a map. This will guide you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord, it's not fair. Why did James have to die? He had so much life left. He he he should have been alive. He followed you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He trusts you. It's not right that Herod cut his head off with a sword. How many of us could agree that's a rough way to go? Yeah. Half of the people in the room.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's really like, I don't know. I'm you know. James died way too young. And let's not even talk about the fact that God chose to deliver Peter. He saved Peter, but James is dead.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's not fair. It's not fair. But listen to me, it will be made right one day when the entire story is told and we are all resurrected and we get to hear the why from the author for the part we played in his story. Amen? So here's what I wanna encourage you to do today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Instead of trusting your emotions, I want you to trust God. Proverbs three, five and six. If you're new to Christianity and just started church, this is a great verse to memorize, especially if you're super emotional. Okay? Trust in the Lord with all your heart, that's your emotions, and lean not on your own understanding, that's how you feel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. So if I trust God with my marriage, if I trust God with my health, if I trust God with my finances, if I trust God with my life, in the end, here's what I can know. He's gonna help me become the very best I can be and he is going to fully unlock my potential. But if I go my own way, I follow my own heart, I listen to my own emotions over my faith, listen to me, I'm never gonna become what God has called me to be. Jesus is inviting James and John to live out their full potential.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're super gifted. Their mom is not wrong. But he's inviting them to trust him. Now I wonder if James's mom was still alive. We don't know when her first son died.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wonder if she reflected on his answer. You have no idea what you're asking for. Do you know who else died young? His name was Jesus. He died way too young.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I wonder if she remembered this back. They asked for it. They asked to be great. And oh, by the way, James was great. He was great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Faithful to the end. Faithful to the end. Lastly, to unlock my full potential, must see the value of being a servant. This is where Jesus just blows our minds. Jesus says, you wanna be great?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You wanna live to your full potential? Learn to serve. You see James and John were interested in sitting at the left and right of the throne. We all wanna sit on throne, but we don't all wanna serve like the one who sits on the throne. Couple years ago, I had opportunity to go to the White House.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It was my first time. I went and bought like a new coat. I had to get a coat to go to the White House because you can't dress like this when you go to the White House. You know? I mean I mean, I guess I could have tried, but I don't think they'll let me in.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I went to the White House and there were some famous pastors there and I could say their names, but I don't want you to judge them in the same way that I do since I met them. But I went up to this super famous pastor and I went to say, hey, and I was gonna say, oh my gosh, I've I've followed you my whole life. I've read all your books. I'm such a fan. And I and I went to go like this and he said, I said, hi.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My name is Matt. He said, great. Can you get me a Coke? I was like I was like, I don't know if you know this, but we're all mega church pastors here. Like everybody everybody in this room, everybody in this room is mega.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You guys, I almost like karate kicked I mean, you imagine if I got in a fight in the White House and I punched another pastor? I was like, I you have you ever felt like where you're offended and you just feel the heat? You're like Like you borrow fire from hell and like just is inside. And I could tell my wife is like, oh, he's gonna embarrass us all. He's you know, she's like, I'll get the coke.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'll get the coke. But it was such a gut check for me because what I wanted was to be esteemed and welcomed at the big boy club. And what I got was, get me a coke. I wanna tell you his name so bad. Let's take a look at what Jesus says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But Jesus called them together. So here's what happened, Jesus time out, time out, time out. So the 10 are mad at the two. The two wanna sit at the left and the right, the 10 are mad, they're indignant, remember that word, offended, annoyed, angry. Jesus time out, he calls a time out for the team.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus called them together and said, You know that the rulers of this world lowered it over their people. Listen to this, And officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you, it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader, whoever among you, excuse me, whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first amongst you, listen, this is hard words, must be a slave.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as ransom for many. Man, Tammy and I on that trip, we got a midnight tour of the capital. And I thought that was odd, but you get to go when nobody's there. So we were at the capital in Washington DC at midnight. And I have ADD so I got bored pretty quickly.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I found I found myself in the lobby. It's me and this janitor. And so I'd rather talk to him than senators. And you know what I asked him? I said, how long have you worked here?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He said, forty years. He was retiring that month. I said, who's your favorite president? Some of you would not like his answer. And I asked him, I said, why is he your favorite?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He said, he sees me. He cares about me. And let me just say, some of you are mad because I said the word janitor right now. You're gonna send me a strongly worded email? You should have said building services technician, director of sanitation, custodial engineer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you know why that is? Because names and titles matter more to us than we want would like to admit. But the lesson is there was one president in the last forty years that this custodial engineer said, he sees me. He cares for me. He appreciates what I do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:One presidential leader in forty years. Man, you know what that means? It's easy to be a leader. It's hard to be a servant. Jesus is inviting us to unlock our potential and to become servants.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I wanna encourage you that to do that this week. If you're struggling in your marriage, how can I serve my spouse? If you're struggling in a relationship, how can I be a servant in this relationship? If you're struggling at church, how can I serve here at church? Because what ruined my trip to the capital was a coke.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And you know why? Because I wasn't a servant. Had I been, I was like, yeah. You know, maybe spilled it on him, but you know what I'm saying. But listen, let's all this week try to be mindful because the way to be great, way to truly unlock our potential like Jesus is to become a servant like Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray in the name of Jesus that you would help us unlock our potential. God, it's not easy. Lord, the world does not celebrate servants, but you do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God help us to serve our family, our friends, and our church. Help us to unlock our potential, Lord, by seeing ourselves the way that you saw yourself as a servant. Lord bless us with this attitude. Help us to remain humble. We pray in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What a word for us today and we are so grateful that wherever you happen to be living or whatever you are up to that you took time to be a part of our church service today. And we wanna encourage you if this service or the ministry of Sandals Church is serving you on your journey of following Jesus, would you pray about supporting that work? To do so, you go to sandalschurch.com/support. Grace and peace. We'll see you next week.