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Real faith. Real life. Hosted by Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown of Sandals Church, The Debrief Podcast goes beyond Sunday conversations—diving into the questions, stories, and struggles that shape who we are. Thoughtful. Honest. Unfiltered.
Welcome to the Debrief Podcast with Matthew Stephen Brown, where we take your real questions about faith, the Bible, and culture, and give you honest practical advice you can trust. We're glad you're here. Now let's get into today's episode.
Tammy Brown:Hey, you guys. Back to another episode of the Debrief Podcast with pastor Matt Brown.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And my beautiful cohost.
Tammy Brown:And myself here. Some good questions today. What if what happens if you how do you know if you're losing your soul to your job?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Wow.
Tammy Brown:Is there a right way to read the Bible? And this first one, we're gonna start with Mikaela from Los Angeles and basically wondering about the idea of the more we're in God's word, the more hyper where we come about shortcomings and how do you reconcile that. So let's start with Mikayla from Los Angeles. Hey, Mikayla. She says, the more intentional I am about reading God's word, praying and sharing the gospel, the more I become overwhelmed with my shortcomings.
Tammy Brown:The same, Mikayla. What are concrete things I can do to shift my mindset from work centered to be relationship centered? I'm a one on the Enneagram and I'm becoming too focused on individual performance and not the truth of the gospel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Man, Michela, this is like one of my favorite questions of all time.
Tammy Brown:That's good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thank you for thinking about this, praying through this, and I can really feel just the weight of the reality of those of us who pursue God, you know, the closer we get to God, the more aware we are of our flaws. I mean, it just is. So when we go to the gospel accounts of Jesus calling Peter to be become a disciple, Peter says, depart from me Lord for I am a sinful And so what Peter is acknowledging there is the truth. He's a sinful dude. But what we have to accept is the call of Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus knows exactly who Peter is and still wants him. And so I think that part of moving towards deep deep truth in our inner self is that we all have flaws that we wish weren't there and it seems like the more we dig to try to get out the filth, the more crap we uncover. And, you know, I'm I'll be 55 years old this year. There's just some things about me that I wish I could make go away. And what I've had to reconcile is, like, I I have to serve the Lord with these things because in that struggle is the sacrifice, Mikaela.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that's what's important. So if God makes all of my evil desires, bad thoughts, character flaws, if he makes them all go away, am I capable of service? Because, you know, serving the Lord is serving him in the capacity of your fallenness. So so we need to be aware of that. I think that keeps us humble.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It keeps us real. It doesn't mean we just go, oh, you know what?
Tammy Brown:I got a heroin problem and that's just my struggle.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. You know, you deal with it. But even if you're sober as a heroin addict, you could be sober and for the rest of your life wake up every day with a desire to do that drug. So what we want is, I think as Christians is we want to believe that the desire for the drug will go away year ten of sobriety. I hope it does.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But the offering is actually greater. The offering of sobriety to the Lord is actually greater with the desire there. It just is. And so, you know, this is where I think the church when you and I were kids in eighties and nineties really, really messed people up. So we were a Christian, I'm a new creation, the old has passed, the new has come.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Right? Like, you know, and so, you know, if I'm if I'm a person who's same sex attracted, right, I become a Christian and I I'm, you know, you know, I'm gonna like girls now. Well, men that could happen, but oftentimes what it is is it's trusting the Lord, you know, as as a celibate gay person. That that that's what it is. And hopefully, you know, with community and other things, there will be blessings there that help alleviate that, but the offering is actually in the struggle.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I I just wish that everything went away. Some things change. So you know, you you met me, you knew me prior to getting my life with Christ and I I think you were naive to marry me. If if you were our daughter, I would have counseled you to choose better. But you have to admit, my transformation has been miraculous in many ways.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Having said that, there's still some things that you would probably like to have me change.
Tammy Brown:No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. I know. So no. Tammy won the lottery when she married me. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm just kidding. Like, there there are some things about me that are deeply frustrating that we've talked about a thousand times. We'll probably be talking about Thousand times more. We can't hear each other Mhmm. Because I'm a sinner.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that that's the reality. So the more intentional I am about reading God's word, praying and sharing the gospel, the more I am overwhelmed with my shortcomings. Amen. That means you're doing something right. Mhmm.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So when we read Paul, Paul's first, so he wrote 13 letters in in the New Testament. It's almost half of the New Testament Bible. Think about that. The first thing he writes is, hey, I'm not a super apostle, but I am chosen by God. Then he says, I'm the least of all the apostles.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then his last letter to Timothy, he says, I'm the chief amongst all sinners. So what happens as Paul progresses in his relationship with God, he goes from not a super apostle to the least of the apostles to the worst of all sinners. He becomes more and more aware of things he didn't even know were there. And so that's the beauty for, you know, some of you have family and friends that that that aren't religious and they really think they're pretty good. And it's because they don't have the Holy Spirit gone.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That right there is a problem. You know, that right there. Think of the holy spirit like a spiritual MRI. It shows things you cannot see with human eyes.
Tammy Brown:And
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:it's like, that's a And so so what I would say is, Mikayla, this is a good thing. Mhmm. And here's what's important. How can I because your last part of the question is how can I can I live out the truth of the gospel? Here's the truth of the gospel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus sees all this crap and loves you deeply anyways. This weekend at church, you guys, this will probably be a couple weeks ago when this episode comes out, but it's the seven woes and, in Matthew 23, and these were these were a huge part of who I am as a pastor, who sandals is as a church. You probably heard this every year the first ten years, know, if you wanna clean the cup, first clean the inside of the cup and then the outside because what we tend to do as religious people is just polish the outside. And that's why people don't wanna come to church because they see a bunch of self righteous people. But the beauty is God sees all that and loves me deeply anyways.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that's the gospel. What are concrete things I can do to shift my mindset from works centered to be a relationship centered? And here's the thing is, you're a child of God. So I had to have a difficult conversation with one of our kids a couple years ago and I opened it with this. I'm your dad, nothing is ever gonna change that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You don't have to earn my love, you already have it. Christian, not a Christian. Follow God, hate God. My relationship with you will not change. I just said, I wanna love the real you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So tell me who you are and and be and be honest. That was it. And here's why, there's nothing my kids can do to not be my kids. If they murder me, they're still my kids. We have to understand the relational status that occurs when we become born again.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's paperwork in heaven
Tammy Brown:So good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's signed. And you became Michaela, a child of God. God signed the paperwork, you're adopted, and you can't give these kids back. So you're his kid. So here's the gospel.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No matter what I've done or who I am, I'm still his and he loves me. And that will never change. That's how we live out the gospel. It's not believing that we're that we're worthy of love. It's believing that we are loved.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Cause I think all of us kinda go, you know, like, am I am I worthy of love? And and every one of us is worthy of love because God said so. The last verse in this week's message and hopefully you guys watch it, seven things that I love about Jesus. But the last one is Jesus knows me and loves me anyways. And so there's this beautiful verse in first John four and it says, we love because he first loved us.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So his love for us is not dependent upon anything we could do and that's the good news of the gospel. So think about it, all of our relationships in life have some performance element. You know, like you could have a spouse and be so terrible that they divorce you. You could be a parent and be so awful that your kids do not speak to you. With God, when you are a child of God, he says, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you even if heaven and earth pass away.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Boom. Because God's faithful. So so that's how we we we remain in the gospel. So what are some concrete things that I can do to shift my mindset from work centered to being relationship centered? It's just what I just said.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You are a child of God. So find some verses in scripture and remind yourself of that that you don't have a relationship with God because of your goodness but only because of his grace. So that that's what I would say there. I'm an enneagram one and I'm becoming too focused on individual performance and not the truth the gospel. And so Mikayla, I would say this, grab the book, a book called You, can we send her a copy?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If we have our address, we'll send you a free copy of my book. A book called You. One of my favorite chapters, in that book, maybe my favorite chapter is the chapter on the one and, there's a story in the Gospel of Luke and it's called the story of the prodigal son and what breaks my heart about that that title, Makayla, is it's not a story about a prodigal son. It's a story about a father with two sons and the one in that story is the forgotten son. We all focus on the idiot who goes off to Vegas and hooks up with prostitutes and and does drugs.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But really the story ends with the other son who misses out on the party. And I think that if you can go through and read that, Mikayla, what he says to the one, the son who I believe is a one, he said, all that I have is already yours. Because what the one in that story is failing to realize is in the same way that the father loves the idiot prodigal is the same way that he loves the self righteous, gotta do it right referee. He loves both his boys deeply. And it's just so important that we remember that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And
Tammy Brown:Just seems to me that this side of heaven, we're always gonna have to manage the two tensions at once of our brokenness and God's goodness. Yes. It doesn't make sense.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah.
Tammy Brown:And yet, it's still so true. Yeah. And then for, you know, the Enneagram one, the perfectionist, we are hype. I have a lot of one in me, hyper aware of what's wrong. And the discipline for that, the counterbalance for that is asking yourself what's going right.
Tammy Brown:Yeah. Like, what are the things where where are the areas I'm growing? What are the things God's forgiven me for? Who are the people I'm sharing about? What what is the progress I'm making?
Tammy Brown:What is the growth instead of just hyper fixating on everything that we've done wrong.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Mhmm.
Tammy Brown:Just remembering God loves us like you're saying regardless. And then giving attention and gratitude for even the simplest of progress. I I love the saying Lisa Turkers always says, which is I might not be where I want to be, but I'm not where I was.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Amen.
Tammy Brown:And I think for Enneagram ones, that's gonna be so powerful of always going, you know, I might not be where I want, but I'm not where I was because God is working in me and I am doing my part to follow him, to try to honor him with my life. And yeah. Such a good question.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Mikayla, just know I'm praying for you. Hopefully, can get this book to you and I don't want you to miss the party. And here's the party. God didn't love you because you get things right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God loves you because he loves you. And, you know, again, that that that verse that I said, we love because he first loved us. All love comes from God, generates from God and we have to trust him in that. And I would imagine that if God could put his hand on your shoulder, he would want you to see him smile and he would tell you how he proud how proud he is to have you as a daughter and how much he loves you. And I bet he's got a laundry list of things you get right that you've never seen or ever paid attention to.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I hope that you can have that conversation with God someday and he can share that list with you even if it's a couple of things about how much he loves you. And you know, as a one, you're a driver, you're performance oriented. And that's not always bad. I don't want you to beat yourself up because we need people that care about results. We need people that care about the rules.
Tammy Brown:And see what's broken and
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Mean, I wanna one to be my airline pilot every time. I want I want the rules checked, man. You don't want me flying. Yeah.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It feels good. Let's go. That's not what we want. And so don't beat yourself up because if we didn't have ones in the world, nothing would work. So Mikaela, love you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:God loves you. And I'm so grateful. Here's I would start with three things that you are praying praying, that you are sharing the gospel. Man, those those are those are good things. You are reading God's word.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, man, wish we could get our church to do those things. So I would sit in that and rejoice in that.
Tammy Brown:Well, and really really be mindful, Mikayla, of that inner voice, that inner critic, and just how the enemy gets in there just reminding you and whispering to you all that you're you've done wrong. That is not from the Lord. Mhmm. All the words that you spoke are so true. And I just I just think those are the thoughts we have to take captive of, like, this is not what when you're hearing everything you've done wrong, when it's just like on this loop, like that is not the voice of of God.
Tammy Brown:That's the voice of the enemy. Might even be your own voice to shut it down and just start repeating
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah.
Tammy Brown:What you know to be true from what God says about you from his word. Such a good question. Okay. This next one comes from Sydney in Riverside, California. They say this, I work in law enforcement and I lost the fight in getting a new schedule to continue serving in the capacity that I used to.
Tammy Brown:How can I determine if I'm losing my soul to my job or if it's my calling from God? That is a
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Sydney
Tammy Brown:Difficult question. Good luck with that one.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I have I have lots of thoughts on this. First of all, thank you for being in law enforcement. I think we need good people to be cops. I know we have a lot of young listeners listening. Let me say this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The more critical we are of police, the worst police will have because good people won't wanna do the job. And it's a really really important job. It's I I believe it I believe it is the hardest job in the world to do and here's why. We expect cops to be at their very best when they encounter us at our very worst. And that is that's just the truth.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You don't call the police to your home because you're having a party and blowing out candles. You know, you call the police because someone's life is in danger or somebody feels threatened. And so we just need to remember that that police have a difficult job to do and they have to intervene in situations that we don't wanna intervene. We we don't wanna get involved and they do. And that's not to say, please don't send in the emails.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Cops get it wrong. They're humans. They make mistakes just like I do. Okay. So I work in law enforcement and I lost the fight of getting a new schedule.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here's the thing, Sydney, that breaks my heart in our country. Is we bend over backwards to acknowledge every religion on earth except for Christianity. We we just do and it's it's really sickening and I hope that one day our country will rectify that and acknowledge that Christians deserve a right to worship and serve God And that's fundamental to our constitutional rights. Now having said that, we all have to do things at work that we don't wanna do. That's why it's called work and not fun.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's why we get paid and we don't show up for free. What I would do is I would find a police officer that is a Christian and I would work like I'd work my tail off to get under that detective, that sergeant, that supervisor, someone who understands that you really want to serve God and you really want to go to church and that's a priority in your life. Having said that, be the best police officer you can be. Have a good attitude. Outwork everybody else.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't pout about it. You know, pouting is not a spiritual gift. You know, don't don't be an awful employee because you didn't get your way. Don't threaten to sue. Try to be the very best you can be.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I would encourage you to read the book of Daniel. I think it's a great book for how to live as a believer when you work for someone who doesn't believe. And Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they don't get their way. But what they do get is they find ways to serve God in what in what they're doing. I remember years ago and I don't even know if this is legal because I don't wanna out this person but I remember we used to have police officers in their uniform in church and they would take their lunch and they would sit in church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now they had to sit in the back. They had to keep the radios on because if there was a call, they had to leave. But they were able to do that. And I think that was San Bernardino sheriff where where I I encountered that person. So I don't know if policies changed but they were they were able to do that because they get lunch breaks just like anybody else.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so so I would just encourage you stay faithful, hang in there. You said, how can I determine if I'm losing my soul to my job or if it's my calling from God? Well, I I don't know if it's your calling from God but here's your call. God wants you to have a job, get paid so that you have something to share at church. That's Ephesians chapter, I think it's five verse six.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I could be wrong on that. Can we look that up? It says, let him who steals steal no longer, but let them earn money so that they may have something to give. That's the verse. If you guys can find that for me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You got it? Four twenty eight. Sorry. Ephesians four twenty eight. What did I say?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Five six? I am dyslexic. Give me grace. So I I think that's an important verse and a lot of people don't realize that the purpose of work is so that we can be generous to God and his people. So it's not my calling is not found in the job that I do like so if I'm a husband and a father, my calling is to provide for my wife and my family.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So if I gotta if I gotta scrub toilets, I'm gonna scrub toilets because my calling and this is why I think so many young people are miserable at work. They think their job is their calling. Life is derived from meaning and so you have to attach your meaning where you can. So my calling is to provide for Tammy and my kids. That's my calling.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, I I I get to get paid to be a pastor at Sandals Church. But if Sandals went under, I would preach here for free and I would go get a job somewhere else because my calling is to provide. So how do I know if I'm losing my soul to my job? I I would just journal about it and I I would I I would write this every single Sunday or whenever you're serving and say, God, I hate this. I want to be in church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I would ask the Lord to move mountains for you. That's what I would do. So let's see what God's gonna do. I would not counsel you to quit your job. I wanna see Christians serving in law enforcement.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I think it's so important that we have people of integrity that want to see a redemptive nature to our culture. That that's what I wanna see. I wanna see a redemptive thing happen in our streets with our people and oftentimes, I can't tell you how many times somebody in our church got saved because they had an encounter with a police officer. I I kid you not, they're like, you know what, you need God. And cops have the ability to say things that a lot of us in professions don't have because, you know, desperate times call for different desperate measures.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so I would encourage you to to stick in there and let's let's just say this, Sydney. I'm just making this number up. Let's do six months. Let's take six months and ask the Lord every single day on the way to work. Lord, please change my schedule so I can serve you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And let's see what God does. And if God does something, Sydney, would you would you write back into the show and let us know what God is doing? Because I wanna hear God answer this prayer for you. And I just wish more people grieved like you're grieving over not being able to attend church and serve. And so let me just say a little prayer over you real quick and then if Tammy has any comments she can share.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Father, we just pray for Sydney. We pray that you protect her, keep her safe. Lord, I pray that she would be diligent in praying, Lord, that you would free up her schedule so she could attend church and serve. God, move mountains. Lord, I think this is something that matters to you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So move mountains, God, so that this can happen. I pray that Sydney would diligently pray about this for at least six months, and she would let us know if there's a change. And God, if there's not a change, God, us move into the next phase of praying about whether or not this is this is her calling, Lord, for a job. So just be with her, Lord. Give her grace for herself and for her supervisors and let her work with a good attitude.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Tammy Brown:Amen. We actually don't know that Sydney's a girl. Could be a girl
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:or a guy.
Tammy Brown:Didn't think about it. No. The prayer
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Oh, it is a girl.
Tammy Brown:It is a girl. Okay. We actually do know. I didn't think we
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. Sydney's one of those
Tammy Brown:I know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. It's like Tyler.
Tammy Brown:Because it could be Sid.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Yeah. No. You
Tammy Brown:know? So Last question gets really real from Sergio from Rancho Cucamonga. Sergio, thank you so much for this question. And he says, what is the right way to read or study the Bible? Reading it for a year seems effective for a daily devotional, but it doesn't seem to work for comprehension.
Tammy Brown:Admittedly, it gets boring rather quickly. What is your recommendation?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yeah. Sergio, I I think that every believer at least once in their life needs to read through the whole bible just so you can say, okay, I did it. And then what I would encourage you to do after you do that is immediately slow down. I think the mistake that most Christians make is they read too much at once. You know, today I'm in I try to read one chapter in the old testament, one chapter in the new testament, and so today I am in Psalms chapter nine and I am reading first Corinthians first Corinthians chapter 12.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So that's just two chapters. Now, I have sermon prep. I was in Matthew 23 all week and then wherever that led me on that process. But I just try to read at least one chapter a day. Most days I try to get two chapters in And that's easy for me now because I can read it and then with my bible app, I will listen to it in the car.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I because I struggle with reading so much as a kid, I'm a I'm a I'm a really good auditory learner. But but what I would do is do do that but also get in a discipleship group and really really pour into we have great subship groups that go over the book of Ephesians, I think. What are some Exodus, Genesis? I'm trying to think. They keep adding to these books and and these are group centered bible studies that really are teaching you deep things about the bible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So we have community groups at Sandals. Those groups go over the discussion questions after the sermon to take the sermon to a deeper level which I think is great. Discipleship groups are taking people into other books of the bible and really working through those issues and there are fantastic ways to go deeper. And so we're gonna try to eventually Sergio have a discipleship study for every book of the bible. Our teams are working diligently on that, but it's a it's a lot of work.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I would just say this, some things are boring, you know, and I'm kind of a bible nerd. So it's always interesting to me like the things that are the most boring. I always remind myself, okay, there's something in here for a reason and what's not boring, Sergio is trying to figure out what that is. You know, like in Acts chapter two, the languages that the Jews are speaking where everybody hears their own language are the same tribes and countries known in Genesis chapter 10 at the fall of Babylon. So it's not it's not random.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like, so what God confused, God is now providing clarity. And so we just think, this doesn't matter, but there's a connection there. And so it's it's actually amazing. And it's not always not always perfect. Sometimes you gotta do a little work because names change of countries over time.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But but there's there's stuff like that that that's amazing. Do a word study on the names because sometimes God just slams people with their names. It's hilarious. And what sounds cool to us in English is sometimes God's mocking them. So so that's what I would do.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And and here's the thing, I've been reading the Bible now for thirty years and it's not boring to me. And this is not to shame you, it just matters to me. It matters deeply. Like Tammy and I, you know, we've been married thirty years, and I may not be interested in the conversation but I am interested in the person. That makes sense?
Tammy Brown:Mhmm.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So I may not love what we're talking about but I love the person that I'm talking with. And so the same is with scripture. I may not always like the topic. Leviticus can be very very challenging. Very very confusing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I do want to know the person who's talking to me through it. I wanna know God. And so I try I try to work through that. And again, remember, it's not about information, it's about relating to God and and understanding him and knowing him deeply. This week, in the sermon, seven, reasons to love Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus tells the guys you're going to hell, there's nothing you can do about it. And then the next verse is, therefore I am sending you prophets and sages. And I forget the third the third person that he's that he's sending. Can you guys look that up? It's Matthew twenty three thirty six or maybe twenty three thirty five.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I wanna talk about, you know, prophets. So we know what a prophet is. Right? So prophet can speak prophetically for God, but we don't know what a what a sage is. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:A sage is a person who communicates wisdom. Mhmm. And God sends that to us. And the Bible is full of sages, people that that think deeply and are very, very smart and speak truth for us and help us see things that we would not have seen before. What's the third one?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Did you guys find it? So the third one we finally found is teachers. So the three things that God's God sends us even though, you know, they're condemned in that verse is prophets that speak truth prophetically, teachers that help us understand the scriptures and that's why the stop shop group is so important, but the sage wisdom is is so important. And and Sergio, you know, the the scriptures are worth they're worth their weight in gold. You know, there's an old Jewish parable that says, if a family's on a boat and it sinks and the children are drowning, grab the rabbi.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Isn't that crazy? And and what it means is what's more important than the next generation is God's word. It doesn't mean that kids don't matter. It's just the rabbi is the most important thing because he's he's that person that that is is is carrying the truth of God's word to us. And so so I would say, you know, read fun stuff.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're bored, read Revelation and you won't sleep well. It'll be great.
Tammy Brown:Okay. Well, on that note, you guys, thank you so much for listening, for tuning in, for sharing these episodes with the people in your life that you think would benefit from them. If you think that this podcast and you find it to be valuable, you can do us a huge favor by going to sandalschurch.combackslashsupport to show your support there to keep all of this moving and running. And then also what's most important is that we have an opportunity to answer your real question. So you can go to sandalschurch.com/debrief the debrief.
Tammy Brown:Sorry. Backslash the
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:debrief. Yeah.
Tammy Brown:And ask your questions. There's no question that's too silly, too raw, too complicated. And Matt, not me, but Matt will do his best to answer it. So let's get those questions in and we'll debrief them here. Until then, we'll see you next time.
Celeste Contreras:Thank you for listening. We hope this conversation helped you grow in your faith. If you've enjoyed today's episode, make sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe on YouTube so you don't miss what's next. You can also stay connected by following us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for behind the scenes clips, highlights, and more ways to engage with the community. We'll see you next time right here on the Debrief Podcast with Matthew Stephen Brown.