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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 Brian Burson, and I'm the campus pastor at Sandals Church Redlands. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this incredible message. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I wanna welcome you to Sandals Church today. Today is a special day. I mean, single Sunday is a special day. We celebrate the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate how he can change lives.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But today is a day where we're gonna end the service across all of our campuses even for those of you who watch online crying out to Jesus for whatever it is that we need. I don't know what it is that you need. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what you've been battling. But I know this there's a living breathing Jesus in heaven who died on the cross for you who rose from the dead and he has miraculous power.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That same power that brought him back from death to life is that same power that can speak into your marriage today. Can speak into your depression, can overwhelm your overwhelming anxiety today. And what we wanna do today is we wanna trust Jesus with our deepest needs. So I don't know what's happening in your life but I want you to know this, whatever's happening to you is important to him. Can I get an amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let me say that again, whatever's happening to you is important to him. So let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 20 verses 29. So let's just recall real quickly where we were last weekend. Last weekend, James and John and their mom, I want you to sit at my left and my right and Jesus, do you really know what you're asking for? They're like we do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then he ends with this prophetic word of what it means to follow Jesus. Whoever wants to be great among you, whoever wants to be first must become a slave. Whoever wants to be great must serve everyone. And then he says, for the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as ransom for many. So he says, I'm going to die.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Are you ready to die with me? And then in verse 29, he starts walking towards Jerusalem. So I want you to think about this. What's on his mind? What's on his heart?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Where would you be if you knew you were walking towards your death? You probably wouldn't be concerned with two weirdos on the side of the road yelling at you. And yet Jesus has time for them. And if he has time for them, I'm gonna say he has time for you today. So let's open our Bibles and let's read out of the New Living Translation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Verse 29, as Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho. So Jericho is in a valley right in between the Dead Sea and the Sea Of Galilee and it's it's it's the lowest point of Israel. And so you need to know this. So they go down there from Galilee and then they go up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a mountain town.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So as Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed him. So he's more as popular as he's ever been. Next weekend you're gonna see people wanna take him by force and make him a political leader instead of a spiritual savior. So that's where we're going next week. But right now, a large crowd followed him behind.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Two men were sitting beside the road. And when they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. And I want you to look at what the crowd says. Now this is a nice way to translate this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It says be quiet, what do you think they said? Can you please lower your volume? They said shut up freaks, right? Shut up, Jesus is here. And let's be fair, they don't wanna miss their moment.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What if Jesus just like rattles off a Bible verse? You gotta hear it. You gotta write it down. So they're like shut up, be quiet. But look at this, but they only shouted what?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Louder. Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. When Jesus heard them, how loud must they been yelling? If there's this massive crowd, it's literally think about the paparazzi, you know, following the most famous person on earth. People are pushing and shoving and yelling, know, short people are trying to see, tall people are pushing them away.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Jesus hears them and he stopped and called. And I want you to underline this, this is so important for the end of the message today. I'm gonna ask you to pray for clarity. What do you need to ask Jesus today? Listen to what Jesus says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What do you want me to do for you? Now let's stop there because some of you say, well he already knows. It's not about him knowing, it's about you knowing. What do you need? God does not answer prayers we do not pray.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Verse 33, Lord, they said, we want to see. They're blind. Think about this, these are two men. They can't work, there's no income for them, they're a burden on their family, there's no social security back then, there's no modern medicine. I mean, two are begging every day just to eat.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they're poor. They can't make it to Jerusalem where there's gonna be religious people who will have pity on them. They're in the valley where it's hot and they're unseen and they're outside of the city. Jesus in verse 34, he felt sorry for them and he touched their eyes and instantly they could see. And I want you to underline this last sentence, and they followed him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They followed him. So I wanna challenge you today to trust Jesus with your deepest need, whatever it is. And here's the thing you need to know, I've been your pastor almost thirty years and here's the thing, it's always scary to trust. It's always scary. I had this amazing conversation with my son who's who's starting out his ministry career.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And he just told me, he said, dad, I realized he said, I'm scared of that step. And I said, son, if you're not scared, it's not faith. Let me say it again, if you're not scared, it's not faith. So by definition, these two men are following Jesus. They cannot see him but they are trusting in him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I wanna challenge you, I must trust if I'm gonna trust him with my deepest needs. I must trust that Jesus can see me in the midst of the massive crowds. You ever felt like a nobody and if you haven't just come to Southern California, we all feel like nobodies, right? Nobody in traffic, nobody in the mall. I mean, don't care where you go, we are surrounded by people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Has anybody ever just gotten mad? You're like, really? Traffic on a Tuesday at 11:00? I mean, I've been stuck in traffic in Southern California at 2AM. Can I get an amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What is going on? And none of us care about somebody suffering. We're like, I gotta get somewhere. Because we're Christians, we live with purpose, right? But if you're watching from another state, have no idea how many people live in Southern California.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's massive massive amounts of people. And it's really easy to feel like you're unseen, unheard, unloved in this mass of humanity. And so what I want you to notice here, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He's already told the disciples last weekend that I'm gonna go to Jerusalem and I'm gonna die. I'm gonna be beaten.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm gonna be flogged. I'm gonna be whipped and I'm gonna be crucified. Okay. I don't like going to the dentist. Can I get an amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like I don't like my teeth getting clean and them asking me questions when stuff's in my mouth. Like, I can't talk. Stop asking me. I don't like going to the dentist. When I get to the dentist, I'm anxious the whole way.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like I'm not in the mood to like, oh, I wonder who on the roadway needs prayer. You know who needs prayer on the way to the dentist? I need prayer. That too needs prayer. So it's really easy, amen, to get self involved when we're facing a crisis.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Is Jesus facing a crisis? He's gonna go to Jerusalem to die. And yet he still sees two poor men who need a miracle. And I just wanna remind you of that. God sees you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I you know, I I didn't know that we were gonna preach this message this week, but last weekend I was at Hunter Park and I was in the lobby and and and at Hunter Park it's overwhelming. If you get to go to a campus, it's really cool. You know everybody, they know you. At Hunter Park, it's just it's it's like it's like a wave pool at a theme park. You're like, oh, this was a good idea.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know. You know, you're just like, you know, someone's drowning there. They can fend for themselves. And so I was standing there, know, people are pushing and shoving and and they're not meaning to, but people are trying to get out and and and make their way home and beat the traffic and and it's crazy at Hunter Park. And all of a sudden, I just see a note and it's in red ink and it says it's my 911.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I look at this father and I can tell this is a problem. And you know why I read the letter? Because I know that Jesus would read the letter. Can I get an amen? I knew it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I knew that the reason he was sliding it to me was because he needs God's help. Have you ever been there in your life? Where the city of hope said there's no hope? There's no more time? A counselor has told you to give up on your marriage?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:An accountant said you have no finances. There's no money. Let's not ask God to bless it because there's nothing here. Sometimes you need something from God. Here's what I want you to know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's real easy in our world to think that God cares about the rich people, the famous people, the wealthy people. But we need to remember he cares about his people. And if you're his people, guess who he cares about? You, you. If it matters to you, listen to me, it matters to Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let me say that again. If it matters to you, it matters to Jesus. Matthew twenty twenty nine. As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed him. There's people all around him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And yet these two people in their needs get a front row seat to the miraculous power of Jesus. Psalm 13nine 15, this is how well Jesus sees you. Jesus the creator of all. David writes this, you watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion. As I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We found out a couple weeks ago that our our second daughter is having our second grandchild. We're super excited about that. Amen. And Tammy and I have an app and it tells us how he's growing, what he looks like, you know, he's getting fingernails, you know, he's getting hair, he can see, he can smell his mom a couple weeks ago. I thought that was really cool.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like he'll he's already remembering her scent. I just thought that was amazing that as we're watching this stranger because we've not met him yet. As we're watching him progress, God already knows him intimately. And I want you to know that when no one knew you, God knew you and made you and loved you. You may have been an accident to your parents but you were on purpose to God.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I get an amen? There's no accidental children. Every child is a gift from God and God sees them. Like our culture argues whether or not tissue in a mother's womb matters, God says it does. I see you, I value you, I love you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's God's word. Genesis sixteen thirteen, but some of you are like, well, I'm not an innocent child. You don't know what I've done. You don't know the mistakes I've made. Oh, man, you are listening to the devil today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I want you to listen to Jesus. You see the devil is the great accuser. The devil points out all of your flaws. You know what the devil does? He lies two ways.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He tells you the sin is not that bad, go do it, then you do it. And he's like, look at how bad you are for doing it. He gets you on both ends. And some of us we believe well, man, I can't change. I can't grow, I've messed this up too many times, there's no more hope for me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I've made too many mistakes. I want you to know that the first person to name God is Adam. He names God Yahweh Elohim, Lord God. But the second person to name God is a single mom who's just been sent away by her husband. She's all alone, she's all by herself, and she feels like no one cares for her and no one sees her.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Genesis sixteen thirteen. Thereafter Hagar, if you're thinking of a name for a young girl, I wouldn't pick Hagar. Just why why do that to a woman? Unless your name is Hagar, we love you. We love you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Therefore Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord. Some of you don't realize this, she names God. She names God. Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her. She said, you are the God who sees me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When she thought no one else saw her, no one else cared for her, she said you're the God that sees me. You saw my plight, you saw my hurt, you saw me in the midst of abandonment. She's not a queen, she's not wealthy, she's a single mom who's been dumped by her man. And God says, I see you, I see you. And this is an important moment in scripture because it tells us how God is so radically different from us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We see famous people, we see powerful people. God famously sees people who no one knows and God who's all powerful sees the powerless. Next, I must trust. I must trust that Jesus will listen to my cries when no one else does. Man, there's two things that hurt in life, There's what happened, that's the wound and then there's the people who dismissed it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, that didn't happen. That's not the way that it was. Right, there's two injuries. There's the injury and then there's the people who just like they minimized it. That didn't hurt.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That didn't happen. Right? And that's why all of us are paying so much money in counseling. We're like we're a little nuts. Because we've all been gaslighted, haven't we?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's not what you saw. That's not what I did. That's not what I said. But that's exactly what they said. That's exactly what they did.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So there's the injury, then there's the dismissal of the injury. Here's the thing we got to remember about Jesus. Not only does he see me, but he's willing to listen to me when no one else will. Matthew twenty thirty thirty two. Two blind men were sitting beside the road.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When they heard that Jesus was coming that way, look at this, they began shouting, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Let's pause here. I want you to think about this. Some of you say well I would have had so much faith if I would have seen Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They've never seen him. They're just like you, they're just like me. They are believing by faith. They've never seen him, they've only heard about him. And they cry out Lord, son of David, have mercy on us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And they're told to shut up. Shut up, be quiet. Be quiet, don't make noise. But they only shouted louder. Lord, son of David, have mercy on us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Have mercy on us. How different would your life be if you came into church every single week desperate like these two guys? Lord, let me hear a word. Lord, let me let me have your power. Lord, pour out your miraculous healing over me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What if we showed up at church like these guys do and you guys show up for church worshiping like, yeah, okay. Can you imagine these guys in our church, they'd be going nuts, they have their flags, the tambourines going crazy. Smacking them off beat. Look at this, when Jesus heard them, what happened when everybody else heard them? They said shut up, be quiet.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:When Jesus heard them, he stopped and called. Man, let me just tell you something. There are just moments in your life with God that you will never forget. And I pray this moment for every one of you. That one day, whether it's today, it's at church, it's in your home, it's in your car, you just hear God call you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's it's a little it's a little scary. It's a little intense. But we've all had that feeling, right? We're in the house at night and we're like, somebody over there? Which why do you ask that?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because what what would you do if someone's like, yes, I'm here to murder you. You know. Have you have you ever done that? What's over there? Hey.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We've all had that feeling we're not. We're not what? Alone. And let me tell you, you're not alone. God's watching over you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God wants to protect you. And I hope you have this moment where God says, hey, what do you need me to do for you? And I hope it washes you just with joy and emotion and tears where you realize you matter. God sees you. I just want you to know that I was thinking about this message this week and I was like, Lord, what do I want?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So when we end in prayer, I'm gonna pray for a miracle for me. I'm not gonna tell you what it is, but I want you to pray for your miracle. What what what is it that you need? What is it that you want God to do in your life? And we need to do that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:One of the things I've been doing in my Bible recently is I've been so convicted by this. I just write my prayers in my Bible. Lord do this, Lord do this. Because you know what I tend to forget? I tend to forget when he's answered them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because I I move so quickly to the next need. I forget to thank him for the last miracle. So I wanna encourage you today, write what you're praying for in your Bible in this passage. Because think about five years from now, ten years from now. You know what my daughter gave me this week?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:She said, dad, they were gonna throw this away at church. It was one of my old Bibles. Let me tell you something. It looked like my face. It was it was worked.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, thank you for not laughing when I first said that. But you know what, there's nothing more beautiful than a beat up Bible. Can I get an Amen? And she said, dad, I didn't think you'd want it thrown away. And I said, no, she gave it to me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I just started thumbing through it. And I looked at prayers that I forgot ten years ago. And I just started saying thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So write your prayer today And some of you got to write it cryptic because the person you're writing about says sitting next to you. And don't write like Lord, slay him. Don't write that. Lord, if you love him so much take him home. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Yeah. He can't wait to get heaven and I can't wait for him to go. All right. So write it down today.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's why Psalm twenty-two 24, look at this verse. For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy. He has not turned his back on them, but has listened, underline this, to their cries for help. That's the God that we serve. That's the God that we love.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's the God that we worship. And Jesus is that God. And so even though he's going to the most difficult day of his life to face the most difficult trial any human being has ever faced, he still has time for two guys who wanna see. Amen? He still has time.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Psalm 14five 18 through 19. Some of you are new to Sandals Church and you don't get our vision yet, but it's so important that you learn to get real because if you want to heal, you got to get real. The Lord will not bless a lie. He only blesses the truth. Psalm 14five 18 The Lord is close to all who call on him.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yes to all who call on him in truth. You got to get real. If you go to the hospital, do you want them to diagnose your illness or you want them to guess? You know, you look like you need penicillin. Know you know it's my eye, it's my eye.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They diagnose the problem so they can solve it. We got to tell the Lord this is what I want fixed. This is where I want your healing power. Listen to this, verse 19, He grants the desires of those who fear him. He hears their cries for help and he rescues them.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So why does God answer these two guys prayers when he's surrounded by a whole crowd of people that I'm sure have prayers? Because even though they're blind, they see him for who he is. They see him, they fear him, they are in awe of him, they trust him. Isn't that crazy? Somebody with no eyes has more vision for who Jesus is than we do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I must trust if I wanna trust with my deepest needs that Jesus is the only one with real healing power. How many of guys have ever been duped by a product? Like you know, it fixes this. Some are like that's my whole garage. I mean every time I'm on TikTok right there's something that fixes your face.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know and I gotta admit, know it's been late at night I purchased some of those items. They're like it's from Korea, it has to work. You know, I mean the Koreans all look 11. Amen? You know I'm saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's like what are they doing? If you're Korean, love you but you guys look young. Don't they? I'm just like man, white people we age like soft cheese at a summer party. You know what I'm saying?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like it looks great when you put it out, but the sun just alright. Sorry. I just I just made that up. Okay. But you know people believe in all kinds of crazy stuff.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Have you seen this? Like you're at ladies like you got ladies you get together like, oh my gosh, have you tried this? And before you know it like you're hanging upside down, know, you're doing something weird. But let me just run through this. I just asked Grock this week, what are the 10 dumbest health fads of the last ten years?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's what Grock said. First one, celery juice. Drink celery juice, it fixes everything. How do you know when something fixes nothing? When they say it fixes everything.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I tried celery juice. You wanna know what it tastes like? Sadness. That's what it tastes like. Like if you're super happy, drink celery juice, it will cure you of all your joy.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I kid you not, just go on TikTok, the benefits of celery juice. You know what the benefit is? You just wasted the celery, that's what you did. Okay, and by the way, I can't tell you all of the things because they're inappropriate for church. But this next one, bee venom.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:People are stinging themselves with bees. Ladies are like, oh my gosh, my lips are more full. It's anaphylactic shock. Ladies are stinging their lips. Oh, looks so good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It looks so good. I look so good. You look like a duck. Know, it does not look good. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Here's my here's this one like is every generation, crystals. Some of you are wearing it right now. Like, uh-huh. He's gonna speak to my aura. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen. Crystals are beautiful, they have no power. I'm sorry. You're like, yeah but mine has a hip and neck muscles. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The only way your crystal has power is if you hand it to me and I throw it at you. It will hurt. That's it. And just just do a Google search search not around your children of what people do with crystals. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's all I'm gonna say. Yeah. I know. Yeah. It's worse than the bee sting.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's all I'm gonna tell you. Here's my new favorite one, grounding. Okay. I'm grounding right now. Every day, wherever I go, I'm grounding.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Unless you're Peter Pan and you fly, you are grounding all day, every day. And I can feel the emails right now. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Listen, instead of grounding yourself on earth, why not ground yourself in this?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. Amen. That's all I'm saying. Next one. People believe in celebrities.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, oh my gosh, they're famous, they're beautiful and they're dumb. And they're making money off your stupidity, selling those products. You know who most celebrities don't follow? Jesus, the only one that can heal. Okay, Gwyneth Paltrow is getting sued and by the way, she's beautiful.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, dated Brad Pitt, nice, right? But she's sold a lot of product, she's getting sued for all kinds of stuff. And just because there's a celebrity endorsement, just know this usually they're doing that because they're getting paid. And what they want is your money. And here's the thing, Jesus never takes an offering for a miracle.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can I get an amen? He never sells anything. He never sells anything. He just heals people. He heals people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing is, but people will believe in almost anything except Jesus, Except Jesus. Here's what Jesus said. Jesus said, the world sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Can you imagine we're all in the Titanic and there was one life raft named Jesus. And we're like, don't believe it exists.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's the world. We got one way to live forever, one way. And you're like, don't feel like that's fair. I don't feel like God asked you for your opinion. You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, did God come to you? How do you think I should save humanity? This is the way God chose to redeem that which was broken. Matthew twenty thirty three. Lord they said, we wanna see.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is so important. What do you want? What do you want? It's amazing to me when you just start reading scriptures, when Jesus asked this question several times, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do for you?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My favorite one is his own mom. It's like, need more wine. It's like really your son's Jesus. I don't think you need wine. And he doesn't even wanna do it, but he does it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What do you need Jesus to do for you today? Redirect you, reveal something to you, heal a relationship, lighten your load, remove your anxiety, speak light into your depression. What is it that you need? Because here's what I want to tell you, your secrecy is not saving you, it's sinking you. Darkness loves hiddenness.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Satan loves secrecy. You know what Jesus loves? The truth. You wanna know why counseling doesn't work? Because we lie when we go to counseling.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We do. Everything's great. I'm not sure why we're here. I think we lie to three groups of people, our pastors. You know my kids tell me that all the time, dad people are different around you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I used to not believe them and then I saw video. People are different around me. You guys act better than you are around me. You're like, hello pastor, I was just praying, I was in Leviticus and I was thinking I was thinking we should have an altar. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. Thank you. We lie to our doctors, do exercise every day, eat sugar, never. You know, drink alcohol, haven't even looked at it. Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we lie to our counselors. You know, and I felt this one time, Tammy and I went to counselor counseling and I found myself wanting to win the counselor over. That's helpful. You know, I'm better than her. But I was the problem and I had to own some things.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So Jesus felt sorry for them, and he touched their eyes. Instantly they could see. So if you're not a Christian today, here's what I want you to see. The reason we're talking about Jesus two thousand years later is because of moments like this. He changed the world.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He changed the world. Jesus felt sorry for them and he touched their eyes and instantly they could see. Then they followed him. They changed their life and why is this? Because they just found the Lord of life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now here's where it's gonna take a scary step. Some of you like, well, would trust Jesus if I met him. Okay. Well, Jesus is not here, he's in heaven. He's at the right hand of God and we're awaiting his return.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But until that time, Jesus said to us, he said it's better that I go so that you receive the Holy Spirit. Until that time he's given us his Holy Spirit and it works through other believers. So if I really want to be healed, right? And Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of the father, what I really need is his church because the power of the Holy Spirit works through his church. So look at this, Jesus is so powerful he can use broken people to help me heal.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He can use broken people and that's why people don't go to the church. Oh, don't go to church, there's broken people there. Yep, and God uses them to heal. James five sixteen, confess your sins to each other. Now if you grew up Catholic, you confess to the priest.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The Bible verse that that practice is based on is not that you go into the church and hide who you are from someone you can't see but that you look someone face to face, eye to eye and you say here's what I did. You see true confession has no hiding. Confession is about revealing. Confess your sins not to a priest, but to who? To each other.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I was in Rome a couple years ago and I remember our guide, was Roman Catholic. She said, I don't believe in confession. I said, well, the Bible does. She just didn't know what to do with that. But what I think she was rejecting was the Catholic practice of going in and telling some stranger your secrets.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We don't want Sandals Church to be a stranger, we want this to be a spiritual community where people know you and still love you. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. But the verse is not over. The earnest prayer. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So think about that word. So like if you're gonna buy a house, they don't do it much in California, but in other states, when you're gonna buy a house, put down earnest money. Do you know what it means? You're serious. You're serious.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's a percentage of your down payment. Three to 5% depending upon where you live. What it says is I mean this. So a prayer that you mean, a prayer that's serious, a prayer that costs you something, an earnest prayer of a righteous person has great powerful and produces wonderful results. Man, what would happen in our church if we had earnest people who had confessed their sins and had prayed to God and then began to pray for each other?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can you imagine what would happen in our church? You see if I really wanna heal, I have to be willing to get real. Couple years ago, I wrote this story in my book Everyday a Miracle, but we had a pastor here at Sandals Church. His daughter had a stroke, she was eight weeks old. She had a stroke and a heart attack and she almost didn't make it and she was in the NICU at Kaiser Fontana.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And she was not doing well and they they told them to prepare for the worst. Imagine your daughter's eight weeks old. And the pastor there, a pastor here who happened to be my brother said, hey, let's get all of the pastors from every church together to pray. So imagine that, all of the churches, The Grove, Harvest, Sandals, The Rock, I mean churches from all of our community gathered together and we prayed and I'll never forget we were standing in the waiting room, were in surgical gowns, had to scrub in to go in because there were other sick children, very very sick children in this unit. And my brother said, before we pray, let's confess our sins.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I was like, oh, he just got real. And here's what he said, he said, I don't want anything to keep us from the power that Jesus has for us. And we just went around the room. And you know what some of the pastors confessed, God, don't believe you're gonna do this. And pastors confessed their sins.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We walked in, we prayed over this little girl. Listen to me, she was healed within an hour. Amen, she was healed. And for years at Sandals Church, I used to run into doctors who worked at Kaiser Fontana and they would recite that story, hey, you're from that church that had that miracle. You see even doctors were like, you know what, oh my gosh.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here's the thing you need to know about Jesus. Jesus does something here that even medicine cannot do today. Do you know that your eyes are one of the most difficult things to work on? It's one of the huge problems with evolution. You see eyes can't evolve, They either work or they don't work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know you can't slowly see, kinda see, sorta see. You know half working eyes don't benefit. You need to have vision or no vision. And here's the thing some of you don't know about your eyes, they're actually a part of your brain. It's literally when you're in the womb, your brain squirts out and those are your eyes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So think of your brain and it has a cable that shoots out your eye sockets and that's your retina and it's actually interpreting data. So listen to me, this is actually brain surgery, what Jesus does. And he just touches them. Can you imagine going to USC which is the best eye surgery hospital in Southern California and Jesus just touches you, no surgery, no scalpel, no anesthesia. He just touches you and the eyes are remade and you can see.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus is showing you who he is. He's not the one who surgically heals eyes, he's the one who created eyeballs. And he says, oh, and he heals them. Hebrews four sixteen, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Here's what this verse means.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look, you need grace, when you need a miracle, you need to run to the throne of God because you have access because of Jesus and he wants to hear your prayer. So what is it you need prayer for? We're gonna pray for three things. Number one conviction, some of you are in sin and God is not gonna move in this church if you don't confess your sin. We need conviction.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We need a church that rejects sin and follows Jesus. Can I get an amen? That's what we need. God will not listen to our prayers until we have cleared our conscience. Confess your sins one to another so that you may be whole and healed.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. So what we wanna do is we want conviction. Two, we want clarity. What do we need? Prayer for our marriage, prayer for our finances, prayer for our depression, prayer for our addiction.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay, if you're a part of AA, why do you begin every meeting with hi, my name is so and so and I'm an alcoholic? Because clarity leads to change. And you gotta say it. Here's my issue. And then lastly, confidence.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Some of you today and I know this and this breaks my heart. You're gonna attend church and you're gonna leave without the prayer you so desperately need. And you know why? You don't wanna be embarrassed. What about the two blind guys?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They didn't care. Jesus, Jesus, shut up weirdos. Jesus, Jesus. And he heard them. They didn't care.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They didn't care how they looked. They didn't care how they sounded. They didn't care what people said. They needed a miracle and Jesus was there. And let me tell you, Jesus is here and if you need a miracle, you need to come forward for prayer, amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is your moment. This is your moment. This is your road. You're on Jericho right now and he's passing by and you say, well, he might be here tomorrow, he might not be. He's here right now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is your moment, don't miss it. So let's bow our heads and let's pray. Lord Jesus, would you just fill this room, every one of our churches, Lord, every one of our campuses, every home of every listener watching this message, would you fill us with a spirit of conviction? Lord, what is the sin in our life that we need to get rid of? Lord, let us confess that to you right now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord, give us clarity. What's the miracle that we need right here, right now? Lord, what is it that we want you to do? Give us clarity. Lord and then give us confidence.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If we need to come forward and pray, let us come forward and pray. And maybe we're a believer here today and we've never prayed for somebody because we're afraid. We need to start praying for somebody. If the lines too long, Lord at our campus, let us pray. God, it's not about us, it's about you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We are the broken people, you are the healer of people. God use us and move through us. We pray this in Jesus Holy name, Amen. Amen. Love you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What a word for us to be invited into a moment of crying out to God for mercy. And wherever you might be, wherever you might be watching this, if that is you, we would love to hear your story and who you are. I wanna encourage you right now in this moment, don't miss this moment to go to sandalschurch.com/help. It'll give us a chance to discover who you are and how we can be serving you and praying for you. So go there now.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We love you. Grace and
Pastor Fredo Ramos:peace.