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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 Morgan Teruel, and I'm the online campus manager here at Sandals Church. We're so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Matt teaching from our home series. 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 Matt Brown:A couple years ago, the Rams moved from St. Louis back to Los Angeles. And I don't know how you feel about that. People in St. Louis were upset.
Pastor Matt Brown:Some Rams fans were like, where do we belong? Back home. But I took my nephew to a game. He had graduated from high school, and I said, whatever you wanna do. And he said, I wanna go to a Rams game.
Pastor Matt Brown:I'm like, are you sure? But we went to a Rams game, and it was pathetic. They lost by over 40 points. It was so bad, the coach got fired after the game. And I told my nephew.
Pastor Matt Brown:I said, I told you. But one of the things one of the things that embarrassed me as a sort of Rams fan was when you go to a Rams game, they they would do this this slogan, and they would shout this thing. And the announcer would go, whose house? And only the only the way that Southern Californians can, they're like, Rams house. You know?
Pastor Matt Brown:Like, every every other city in America loves their team, loves their sports. In California, we're like, I'm eating sushi. I can't yell right now. But I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed, you know, as a kind of Rams fan.
Pastor Matt Brown:I wasn't even, like, all the way in. And I was embarrassed. And oftentimes at Rams games, there's more fans for the other team than there is for the home team. And unfortunately, that's a lot like church. Amen?
Pastor Matt Brown:I mean, here we are today. Whose house are we in? And you're like, the Lord's house? And we have worship, man. We gotta bring out some cheerleaders, you know, not inappropriate cheerleaders, but, you know, appropriate just to get you pumped up, just to get you excited because you're in the Lord's house today.
Pastor Matt Brown:We've been in this series called Home, and today we're gonna talk about his house, God's house. And I I just wanna warn you, this is a little bit offensive. You know, I specialize in slightly offensive. Amen? But if this is God's house and this is where God has called you to make your spiritual home, this message is for you.
Pastor Matt Brown:If you're visiting today and you're just trying to figure out Christianity, this may not be for you, but we wanna be upfront at Sandals Church about what God expects from people who feel called to his purpose and his kingdom. And so we're gonna talk about how to take care of God's house today. I'm sure every single one of you, you have chores that you gotta do at your house. On my way to the studio today, I I was meeting a garage door salesman because our garage door is from 1847 and weighs a gazillion pounds. And I told my wife, if you want my back to survive another year, we gotta replace this garage door.
Pastor Matt Brown:And his first statement was, this is really old. I was like, thank you. Can you tell my wife? Amen. But we all have things at our house that we wanna improve.
Pastor Matt Brown:We have things in our apartments that we wanna fix. Carpet's clean, new curtains, a new TV. Right? We're infatuated with our houses when God's house is often the most neglected. And there was a prophet named Haggai, and Haggai had had enough.
Pastor Matt Brown:He had had enough of people being totally focused on where they live and what they do. Some of you have 2, 3, and 4 houses, and you've never thought about God's house. And Haggai says this in Haggai chapter 1 verses 4 through 11. He says, Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of heaven's armies said, right?
Pastor Matt Brown:He wants you to get the threat. You know what I'm saying? This is God, he's got a big army. Why do you have this big mansion and yet you don't even think about his house? But listen to what he says.
Pastor Matt Brown:He says, look what's happening to you. To you. You've planted but you harvest little. You eat, but you are not satisfied. You drink, but you are still thirsty.
Pastor Matt Brown:You put on clothes, and you cannot keep warm. I mean, not in SoCal. We're too warm. Amen? Listen to this statement and tell me if this isn't appropriate for today's economy.
Pastor Matt Brown:Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes. Can I get an amen? Man, that feels like grocery shopping. Amen? This is what the Lord of heaven's army says.
Pastor Matt Brown:Look at what's happening to you. Now go up into the hills and bring down timber and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. For you hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, it blew away.
Pastor Matt Brown:Why? Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of heaven's armies. Now while you are while you are busy building your own fine houses, it is because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. He says, I have called for drought, Californians, pay attention, on your fields and hills, a drought to wither the grain and the grapes and the olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock, and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.
Pastor Matt Brown:I got one point today. Be proud. You never thought this would happen. This is a miracle sermon. One point.
Pastor Matt Brown:One point. A one point message. God blesses my home when I take care of his house. Amen. Let me say it again.
Pastor Matt Brown:God blesses my home when I take care of his house. I wanna challenge you guys. I mean, you've been to our campuses. Go to every campus. None of them look like anything you'll see in Italy or in Europe.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen? Our churches look like the warehouses for the churches in Europe. Can I get an amen? I've had people come to our churches and ask us, when is it gonna be completed? I'm like, it's done.
Pastor Matt Brown:This is it. This is it. So listen to me. Are we extravagant at Sandals Church? No.
Pastor Matt Brown:And if you think we are, you need to get out of the house. You need to look at your house. You need to look at you need to look at the houses we worship in. Now we're grateful to have what we have. But the fact of the matter is we're solely focused on the things that go on in our house.
Pastor Matt Brown:When your TV screen goes out, like, that's that's a panic attack for you. And some of you, you come to Hunter Park and one of the screens is out. You don't even notice. You're like, oh, it was out? I didn't even notice.
Pastor Matt Brown:Yeah. It's dark, bro. We need to take care of God's house, and we need to think about that. And I know there's gonna be the I can feel the typer's already online. Well, I'm the Lord's house.
Pastor Matt Brown:I get it. But we have to have a place to worship. And we can't worship inside you, bro. You're not big enough. God's people need places to gather and to worship.
Pastor Matt Brown:And let me say this. The only campus we closed down during the pandemic was the one where we didn't own the building, because we couldn't control it. We couldn't get in. We couldn't make the rules. And we're grateful that today we own 13 campuses.
Pastor Matt Brown:Praise God. Let's give a hand for that. Amen? So God blesses my home when I take care of his house. The prophet Malachi says this.
Pastor Matt Brown:He says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. This is another prophet preaching to another people who have the same problem. They're stingy when it comes to God, that there may be food in my house. And thereby, he says, put me to the test. Did you know the Bible actually says, don't test God?
Pastor Matt Brown:But God says when it comes to giving, he says, test me. Test me. You know what he's saying? I dare you. I dare you, says the lord of hosts.
Pastor Matt Brown:If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down on you a blessing until there is no more need. Who wants to be blessed? Amen? Anybody? Half of you.
Pastor Matt Brown:Some of you are like, I want more curses. I need more struggles. K? Then you need to change churches to the 1st church of crazy. Amen?
Pastor Matt Brown:Because I want more blessing. Amen. I want more blessing. I I wanna live in the blessings of God. So here's the thing.
Pastor Matt Brown:God blesses my home when I take care of his house. Here's the question then. How do I take care of God's house? What do I do? There's a lot of amens, but what do we actually do?
Pastor Matt Brown:So I got a couple bullet points. I kinda fibbed a little bit. I got a lot to say here, more than the one thing. I take care of God's house by helping to raise his kids spiritually. The fundamental purpose of a family and a home is to raise kids.
Pastor Matt Brown:That's the fundamental purpose. I was talking with my niece's new husband. He moved from Italy to marry his American wife. He had no worries, no problems, traveled Europe, flew anywhere he wanted to go, got married. He's got 3 kids now.
Pastor Matt Brown:He's got his first gray hair, and it just poo. It grows faster than all the other ones. I said, how's it going, man? He says, it's tough, Matthew. It's tough.
Pastor Matt Brown:That's my Italian accent. But I said I said so we we talked about all the difficulties. I said, what's the thing that brings you the most joy about being a dad? You know what he said? When I put my boys to sleep at night and I know they're safe.
Pastor Matt Brown:You see, the primary role of a parent is to keep kids safe. Look. In light of what happened in Georgia this week, are our kids safe? We we gotta work hard to protect our kids. And politics, you know, politicians, the left's gonna go their way.
Pastor Matt Brown:The right's gonna go their way. We need to go the kids' way. We need to do what's best for the kids. I love what JFK said, Robert Kennedy, excuse me, said. He said, we have to love our children more than we hate each other.
Pastor Matt Brown:He's truly a great American. Whether you agree with him or not, I wish more of our politicians talked that way. We have to love our children more than we hate each other. And some of you are saying, well, I raised my kids. And the Lord's like, no, no, no.
Pastor Matt Brown:I got more kids. I got more kids. And listen to me, grandparents. You will do whatever it takes to make time for your grandchild, but you ignore God's. Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.
Pastor Matt Brown:Man, if you're not a Christian here today, guess what you need to know. Jesus loved kids in a day and age where kids were unseen, where kids were uncared for. Jesus said, let them come to me, and don't hinder them.
Dani Crowley:Hey, Sandals Church. Thank you so much for joining us for today's message. I just wanted to take a brief moment to invite you into the work that Sandals Church is doing. One way that you can do that is by going to give.sc. For now, let's get back into our message.
Pastor Matt Brown:Now I got good news. We got great programs here at our church for our kids. Fantastic youth, leaders. We have fantastic children's workers. We have fantastic, kids workers.
Pastor Matt Brown:We work hard to keep your kids safe and to teach them about Jesus. We do it so well. I gotta tell you, people from other churches send their kids to our programs. And it used to bother me. You know what I'm saying?
Pastor Matt Brown:I just you know what I'm saying, girl? I wanted to you know you know what I wanted to do. I used to get so upset about that, because people send their kids to our our church's programs on Wednesday night or whatever. But you know what? I had to get over that, because you know why?
Pastor Matt Brown:I'm called to minister to all of God's children. And and and I quit caring about that anymore, and here's why. I'm worried about this generation. I'm worried about our kids. I was in a meeting this week as your pastor.
Pastor Matt Brown:This week, I was in a meeting where we were discussing kids who identify as an animal. They're called furries. Have you heard of this? I hadn't heard of this. I kept referring to them as furbies.
Pastor Matt Brown:I'm not I'm not making fun of them. I just kept saying Furbies, and finally one of our staff was like, pastor Matt, it's furries. And I and then he told me Furby is a real thing. It's just something you buy on Amazon. But how sad is that?
Pastor Matt Brown:We have children today that would rather identify as an animal than an angel. That's how messed up our kids are. And we don't need to put them down. We don't need to make fun of them. We need to lift them up.
Pastor Matt Brown:We know our kids aren't okay. That kid that shot all those people in Georgia, he was already on the FBI's list. They already knew he had problems. They'd already met with his parents. We know there's a problem.
Pastor Matt Brown:We have to actually act. We have to actually do something. And we can point fingers at government or we can point fingers at ourselves and say, we wanna change kids here at our church. Here's what psychologists are saying. Our kids are not okay.
Pastor Matt Brown:There's been a cultural collapse since the invention of the iPhone. K? Now I have one. I'm not I'm not if you're if you're an Apple person, I'm not putting it. I'm just saying that little device has destroyed kids, particularly girls.
Pastor Matt Brown:It's made girls particularly vulnerable to feeling like they don't matter and they're ugly and they're overweight and they're no good. And we've seen a mental health crisis in our young ladies that we have never seen in this country. And it's affected our boys. They've gotten violent, antisocial, and angry. We know we have a problem.
Pastor Matt Brown:We know we have a problem. And what's the answer? 2 things. God and relationships with healthy people. You know what the church is about?
Pastor Matt Brown:God and relationships with healthy people. Here's what psychologists are saying. This isn't me. This isn't a Christian therapist. Here's what the research shows.
Pastor Matt Brown:Listen to me, parents. The kids that have been the most resistant to the cultural collapse that we're seeing are kids that have been raised in conservative churches. Now, I don't mean conservative Republican and not Democrat. I mean conservative. The Bible's the word of God.
Pastor Matt Brown:God's the only way. You're created in his image. It's not about you. It's about him. That's what I mean by conservative.
Pastor Matt Brown:And what they're saying is they don't know why that that helps kids. It helps kids handle the avalanche of negativity, the avalanche of the identity crisis, the avalanche of depression. It's helping kids. So what do we need to do, Sandals Church? We need to help kids.
Pastor Matt Brown:The first panels that we put out if if if Haggai was preaching today, he would say take care of kids ministry. That's what he would say. He would say volunteer on Wednesday nights. That's what he would say. And listen to me, parents.
Pastor Matt Brown:I'm begging you. You got one shot at parenting. One shot. And you're gonna make mistakes. Just don't make this one.
Pastor Matt Brown:Raise your kids in church. Raise your kids in church. Amen? Come on. Proverbs 22:6, direct your children onto the right path.
Pastor Matt Brown:And when they are older, they will not leave it. I praise God that my parents raised me in church, because when my life fell apart, I knew where the spiritual hospital was. And I went right back, right back. We need to be praying for our kids. We need to be praying for the single parents in our church who are having to do it all.
Pastor Matt Brown:They have half the money and twice the responsibilities. And we need to look out for them and we need to help them. And we need to come alongside these kids. You're not a furry. You're made in the image of God.
Pastor Matt Brown:He loves you. He cares for you. He made you to actually rule over the animals, not to be 1. And we need to say that with love and compassion. And just so you know, Christian churches and schools are folding on this issue.
Pastor Matt Brown:They're folding because of the cultural avalanche. And what I'm asking you to do is to stand with me and say, no, no, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. You're not gonna drink out of a doggy dish. It's not happening.
Pastor Matt Brown:And it's not because I hate you, it's actually because I love you. It's because I love you. We don't put leashes on kids at Sandals Church. We take them off. Jesus sets people free.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen? That's what he does. Next, how how do I take care of my how do I take care of God's house? I take care of God's house by supporting it financially. How many of you guys live in a house?
Pastor Matt Brown:Raise your hands. K. Are any of them free? And don't raise your hand if you're a kid. It's not free.
Pastor Matt Brown:Someone else is paying their rent. Every single house has expenses. Are the expenses going down or up? What are they? Up.
Pastor Matt Brown:K. Up. Up. Up. Way up.
Pastor Matt Brown:And again, I'm not trying to be political. I'm just trying to be real. K? Let me just tell you. The giving at Sandals Church is up 7% this year over last year, 2023.
Pastor Matt Brown:That's great. Let's clap for that. Here's the bad news. Our inflation is clicking at about 20%. So what does that mean?
Pastor Matt Brown:Every single year, we have to figure out a way to tighten our belts. Now last year, at the end of the year, you guys are are one of the most generous churches I I know of. We raised an extra $2,000,000 in December December just to cover our expenses. I don't wanna do that every single December. You know what?
Pastor Matt Brown:Fundraising isn't fun. It isn't. You're like, oh, Pastor Matt's talking about money again. You wanna know who doesn't wanna talk about money? Me.
Pastor Matt Brown:Nobody tells you when you plant a church, you're gonna have to be a fundraiser your whole life. Listen, we need to take care of God's house. Now I know some of you, you say, well, I'm a Christian, and I don't have to tithe 10%. I'm not saying you have to do anything. K?
Pastor Matt Brown:I tithe because Malachi promises that the Lord blesses it, and I want all the blessings that I can get, so I do it. But here's the thing. I have to convince members to give somewhere around 10%, and I'm asking my staff members to take 40, 50, 60% pay cuts. Is that is that right? Is that right as a church when our membership can't get to 10%, but our staff is at 50, 60, 70% pay cuts?
Pastor Matt Brown:And you're saying, well, Pastor Matt, you know, you want a raise. I haven't had a raise in 3 years and I'm not taking one this year. And I'm gonna be honest with you. I I will work here for free if I can. I love Jesus.
Pastor Matt Brown:I love this church. I believe in what we do. This is the purpose of my life. But what we have to do as a church is is we have to grow up in this area. And some of you are extraordinarily generous, but some of you are not.
Pastor Matt Brown:Exodus 355 says, take a sacred offering. When when you know, all your bills that you pay are bills. You know when you give to the Lord, it's a sacred offering. Listen to what God says. Let those with generous hearts present the following gifts to the Lord, gold, silver, and bronze.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen? Because the dollar ain't worth nothing. I'm kidding. But what he's saying is give to the Lord. One of the things that breaks my heart as your pastor is when I go to people's houses and they're big and they're beautiful And I see what they spend on their house, and then I discover what they give to God's house.
Pastor Matt Brown:It it I I cannot explain how that grieves my heart. We had a guy this is years ago, and I don't even think he's in Riverside anymore, so I can talk about him. But he was super upset about the money that we were spending to decorate our Hunter Park campus when we first moved in. I'm gonna tell you, we spent $75100 to decorate our 1st worship center at Sandals Church. $75100.
Pastor Matt Brown:A bunch of men and women in our church volunteered all their time. We had all kinds of work crews who put it up. I went over to this church member's house, and he eventually was gonna leave our church because of what we spent. And then he went to show me his staircase that he rebuild, tore out, rebuild, tore out 3 times to get it right. I said, I'm guessing you spent more than $75100 on this staircase, so they don't go to Sandals anymore.
Pastor Matt Brown:But I don't care. It's it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. We had people work in almost 24 hour cruise to get it done, volunteering their time to get into this building. Nothing that Sandals Church does is extravagant.
Pastor Matt Brown:Nothing. K? Nothing. I wanna challenge you as a Christian. Christians should never resist a generous impulse, especially when it's for the Lord.
Pastor Matt Brown:Ever. If the Lord's calling you to give something, give it. Do it. Never resist a generous impulse. Because every time you're generous, listen to me, you've become more like Jesus.
Pastor Matt Brown:Psalms 3721, the wicked borrow and never repay. Anybody been ripped off in here? I've been ripped off by people at Sandals. I'm not kidding you. The first sound system we bought as a church, Tammy and I put it on our credit cards, and the guy in our church ripped us off.
Pastor Matt Brown:I had to pay interest on sound equipment we didn't get. I had to get over it. Some of you are way too focused on the sins of people rather than the grace of Jesus. Look. Wicked people don't repay.
Pastor Matt Brown:Wicked people borrow and don't give back. Don't be wicked. But the godly are generous givers. They're generous givers. You know what?
Pastor Matt Brown:I got ripped off. I got over it. I got over it Because God's good. And he takes care of me. And eventually, somebody got us a real sound system.
Pastor Matt Brown:2 Corinthians 8:9. You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you don't know his generous grace, then this message is gonna make no sense to you. But if you know the gracious, incredible grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, this message is gonna convict you. Listen to this.
Pastor Matt Brown:Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty, he could make you rich. Man. I love this proverb. Proverb 229, blessed are those who are generous. Blessed are those who are generous.
Pastor Matt Brown:When I die, I hope that every one of my children and all of my friends use the word generous to describe me. I don't wanna die with a bunch of stuff. I wanna die a very generous person. And I wanna encourage you to do the same. Next, I take care of God's house by serving at it faithfully.
Pastor Matt Brown:By serving at it faithfully. You wanna know how we could talk about money less? Volunteer more. I just hugged out in the lobby, I just hugged this lady. Every time I see her, I say, you're my favorite employee.
Pastor Matt Brown:You wanna know why? She volunteers. If I quadruple her salary, we're getting a good deal. We're getting a good deal. Man, a couple, weeks ago, a a good friend of mine, he was working at his house.
Pastor Matt Brown:We we had gone surfing early in the morning together, and and he had to go do some work at his house. And and it was gonna be really hot, and I advised him not to do the work. I was like, man, it's gonna be really hot. You shouldn't do the work. He's like, I gotta get it done.
Pastor Matt Brown:And I said I said, you should hire somebody. And he's like, I can't afford it. And so he went and and I'm I'm sitting at home, eating my cereal, watching TV in my air conditioned house. And I'm thinking about my friend. And I'm thinking about the work that he's doing.
Pastor Matt Brown:And I gotta be honest, I got convicted. Like, if I love him, what do I do? I go help. Some of you didn't know. You go help.
Pastor Matt Brown:And I went over to his house. And I worked, and I thought I was gonna die because I'm 53 years old and the heat just doesn't feel the same. You know what I'm saying? It just doesn't. But you know what I kept telling myself?
Pastor Matt Brown:Every wheelbarrow load. You know what I was telling myself? Every wheelbarrow load I do is one that he doesn't have to do. And that's why it worked. Because I love him.
Pastor Matt Brown:Because I care about him. Listen. I would love to hire less staff. What we need is more volunteers. More volunteers.
Pastor Matt Brown:1st Corinthians 12:5. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same lord. Use your gifts. Use your gifts. Last week, I was at Palm preaching because pastor Andrew, Andrew, Adam Atchison, his kid was in the hospital, and he was super sick.
Pastor Matt Brown:And I said, look, man. You need to be with your kid. I said, I'll preach for you. It was a big day. They had a bunch of people coming.
Pastor Matt Brown:He was super excited about it. Their whole staff had worked for it. And I'm like, man, don't worry about it. I'll I'll preach for you. K?
Pastor Matt Brown:And if you think I'm terrible at preaching, we have to have another conversation. But I showed up and I preached for him, man. And he was able to stay with his kid. Why? Because that's my gift.
Pastor Matt Brown:I used my gift to serve him. I preached on stage. I got attacked by flies. I was super paranoid because a lot of people haven't seen me live, and they're watching me preach. And I'm and I'm and I'm thinking, what if they think there's no flies on stage?
Pastor Matt Brown:And I'm just like, you know. So but I actually killed 1 in in the middle of preaching because I'm like mister Miyagi. And, and I showed it to him and then let him die in the name of Jesus. Okay. Romans 12:1, stay focused.
Pastor Matt Brown:Never never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Serve the Lord. Look, I get it. Life is hard. Life is busy.
Pastor Matt Brown:There's one way where you were exactly like Jesus. Jesus had 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That's how we're exactly like him. And what we need to do is not say we're busy. We need to reprioritize our lives to make sure that we have time for what's important.
Pastor Matt Brown:Because a lot of you spend a whole lot more time doing this on your phones with your thumb and your thumb's hurting. That's the Holy Spirit. Stop doing that. You're spending more time scrolling than you are serving. I mean, your phone will tell you.
Pastor Matt Brown:You spent this much time on the phone this week, and some of you don't even look at it because you can't I can't look at that. It's too real, pastor. It's too real. So I want you to think about this, and I want you to talk about this in your small groups. I can serve my local campus by blank.
Pastor Matt Brown:What can I do? What can I do? And small groups speak into this. This guy, super handsome, smiley, good looking guy. You know, a guy that smiles.
Pastor Matt Brown:He's got all his teeth. He's like, I wanna serve in security. And I'm like, no. No. You're a greeter.
Pastor Matt Brown:Smilers are greeters. Frowners are security. We don't want security. Like, I'm so glad you're here. We want security that's like, I see you.
Pastor Matt Brown:I see you. And he's just, like, well, I just wanna serve. I'm like, no, bro. You have a great smile. Greeter.
Pastor Matt Brown:Come on, man. You know, if you're good with directions, parking, you know, it's real simple. If you're not intimidated by children, kids, it's good. If you can sing, worship. If you can't, it's not worship.
Pastor Matt Brown:You know? This is American Idol, we will be honest with you. We love you, but you can't sing. It's so important. It's so important that you guys serve God.
Pastor Matt Brown:We have 10,000 people every we have 10,000 bodies every single weekend at our campuses. We can serve. Attend a service, serve at a service. It's why we call it a service. It's not an attendiff.
Pastor Matt Brown:It's a service. I know somebody like, I never thought of that. So find a place to serve, and it'll help us out. Next, I I take care of God's house by welcoming people to it enthusiastically. You know what people why people put Sandals Church down?
Pastor Matt Brown:Because we're big. I wish every church was big. If all the churches in your town, my town, if every church is a 100% full, 90% of our cities are still dying and going to hell. Man, I wish every church was huge. I wish every church was massive.
Pastor Matt Brown:We gotta start welcoming people. I'm glad you're here. I'm so glad you came. You know, don't flip somebody off because they took your parking space, say, there you go. There you go.
Pastor Matt Brown:So glad you're here. I mean, some of you, you're scared of the ocean but you're more of a surfer than you are a Christian. Let me explain surfers. They are the most inhospitable people on earth. They don't want you there.
Pastor Matt Brown:They don't want you paddling out. They're not glad you came, and they want you to leave. And sometimes they tell you. I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you.
Pastor Matt Brown:People love Hawaii. I've been in more fights in Hawaii. And I tell them, aloha ends at the beach. Ends. But that a lot of Christians are like surfers.
Pastor Matt Brown:This is your local break. It's my local break, bra. That's my seat, bra. You know? You need to head out of here, bra.
Pastor Matt Brown:My friends and I are gonna rough you up, bra. We need to be a church that welcomes man, I'm so glad you came. I'm so glad you're here. But some of us, man, we just we just all about ourselves. And that's what surfers are.
Pastor Matt Brown:They're all about themselves, the waves they catch and the time they have. And this is true everywhere on earth. Surfers are not nice anywhere to anyone. And any surfer that tells you different is lying. But a lot of Christians are like that.
Pastor Matt Brown:We wanna welcome people who are lost and are looking to see if they can be found. Romans 15:7. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. When we built our big room at Hunter Park, the 23 100 C Auditorium, there was a church member and she was weeping. And I could tell it wasn't happy tears, you know.
Pastor Matt Brown:I've been married a long a long enough to know happy tears from sad tears. And I said, what's going on? And she said, I'm just so sad that the church I love is changed. And I said, well, you identified a 1,000 people that you want me to send away so I can make room for what we used to be. She doesn't go to Sandals anymore.
Pastor Matt Brown:Because what she vocalized is what a lot of people actually believe. The church is all about me and the people I can know rather than the God who saved me and who's called me to reach the world. Amen? So first Thessalonians 49. But we don't need to write to you about the importance of loving each other.
Pastor Matt Brown:This is, like, the funniest verse in the bible. Did you catch what he just did? We don't I don't need to write this to you, but I just did. We don't need to write to you again about loving each other, for God himself taught us to love one another. What's the problem?
Pastor Matt Brown:We're all surfers. This command is repeated 7 times in the Bible. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another.
Pastor Matt Brown:Romans 138, 1st John 27, 1st John 2311, 1st John 323, 1st John 47, 2nd John 25. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Pastor Matt Brown:Boom. Why? Because the first thing that we forget is to love each other. Some of you have forgotten how much God used Sandals Church to change your life. I meet people all the time.
Pastor Matt Brown:I wouldn't be married if it wasn't for Sandals Church. I wouldn't be clean if it wasn't for Sandals Church. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Sandals Church. God used Sandals Church to change lives. And some of you, God has used Sandals Church to change your life, and you've forgotten that the person next to you is who you used to be, trying to become what you are.
Pastor Matt Brown:So make a little room for them. Have a little grace for them because God might be working in their life. 1st John 3 16. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up His life for us. Maybe we could give up a seat.
Pastor Matt Brown:Maybe we could give up a parking space. Maybe we could serve at multiple campuses. I mean, I preach it at Palm. I'm not the campus pastor there. We're 1 church, many locations.
Pastor Matt Brown:There's not like a lid on serving. You serve too much. And any staff member that says that, you'd give me their name. And, again, I'm not I'm not trying to I'm not trying to use you or abuse you. I'm just saying, look.
Pastor Matt Brown:If you got a lot of free time and and you have a passion to serve, let's tap into that. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. This is your church. Look, we're heading into a political season. We're headed into an economic I don't know what season, and we need to be unified as a church.
Pastor Matt Brown:And we need to be on all cylinders because I I don't know what's coming. Christ could be coming. Well that that'd be good. But we need to be ready and we need to be serving this church. And when you come into worship, whose house is this?
Pastor Matt Brown:It's God's house. It's God's house. And we should at least be enthusiastic as the Rams. Amen? We should be.
Pastor Matt Brown:We should be passionate about this. And we should care about our church, our church house. We should care about it. We should be praying for it. We should be giving to it, serving at it, and welcoming people to it, especially the smiley people.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen. Not the frowners. Amen? So what I wanna do is I just wanna close out this series, and I want you to see sandals as your home. And I want you to love it like your home.
Pastor Matt Brown:I want you to care for it like your home. I want you to support it like it's your home because we can't ever be the church that God's called us to be without you loving it that way. That's what we need. So I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes, and we're just gonna pray for our church today. I'm gonna pray for our 13 campuses and those who watch online.
Pastor Matt Brown:We need all of us giving, serving, praying, and loving this place so we can reach the people that God has called us to reach. If you just lift out your hands, let's just pray together. Lord, we just all confess. We're more about our own houses than we are your house. God, even as the the pastor of this church, I am guilty of this over and over again.
Pastor Matt Brown:So I confess this to you, lord. Let me have a heart for your house like I have for mine. God, help me discover new ways to be more generous. God, help me to discover new ways to to to serve more. God, help me to figure out new ways to welcome more people to this church.
Pastor Matt Brown:Lord, let us be a generous church that welcomes the lost, and let us never apologize for growing or being big because you're a big god with a big vision, and you want us to reach lots of people. Lord Jesus, let Sandals Church become a home for the lost. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Morgan Teruel:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to
Pastor Matt Brown:sandalschurch.com.