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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 McKay, and I'm a part of the online team here at Sandals Church. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Matt, teaching from our series, the gospel of Matthew. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. Now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:How many of you guys have somebody that you know, love, or have met that deeply struggles with anxiety? Raise your hands. Okay. Look around. Even if you're at campus, look around.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There's an epidemic of anxiety in our culture today. Young people have it, middle aged people have it, older people have it. You know, I mean, I prayed with the lady one time, 90 a hundred and eight and a years old. She was anxious about dying. I was like, you think you'd have been ready by now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Amen? You know, a hundred and eight and a half? Good Lord. Well done. Good and faithful servant.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now go. You know? Mean, if I was a hundred and eight and half, I wouldn't be worried about death. I'd have been praying for it. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Today, right now. But there's this huge epidemic and and and here's what all of the data reveals. How many of you have one of these? It's directly correlated to the invention of the iPhone. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Or the Google phone or whatever phone it is that you use. But this has forever altered our psyche. It has affected us. Now I'm not saying I'm I'm totally against the iPhone or anything like that. There's there's wonderful benefits.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, I no longer get lost. Like, I'm old enough to remember. You had to have that book where you're flipping pages trying to find out where you are, and now kids just kinda drive. You know? I don't know.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The computer tells me. So there are benefits to it, but but this thing tells me I'm not as good looking as I thought I was. I'm not as happy as I thought I was. I'm not as successful as I thought I was. And, oh, by the way, I wasn't invited to thing to things I didn't even know about.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so it constantly is just stressing me out and giving me anxiety. And by the way, I didn't even mention, you know, we're all gonna die today. You know, there's a battle somewhere, a plague somewhere, a disease coming somewhere. I mean, people are freaked out. We we we live in a culture where I just was on an airplane this week.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, half the people are still wearing a mask five years post COVID. Five years. And and I'm not putting anybody down. You have your mask on. That's your choice.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But but is it for health or is it anxiety? What is it? And so we're all coming out of the twenty twenties. It's been rough. We're coming out of technology.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's been rough. And so I wanna talk today about this idea. What about Jesus in my anxiety? K. So what if we marry today our faith and the emotional issues that we're facing?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So here's the difference and I want you to look at this. Jesus is gonna speak to us today and I want you to open your bibles to Matthew chapter six verses 25 to 34. We're gonna look at nine verses and we're only gonna cover today what Jesus says. So let's take a look at this. Jesus challenges me on my anxiety.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now here's one of the things. Now parents listen to me. There's anxiety that you can't help and there's anxiety you can't help. Let me say that again. There's there's anxiousness you can't help and then there's anxiousness you can't help.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And Jesus loves us enough to challenge us on our anxiety. And here's the thing, we live in a culture where we coddle everything. We protect everything. We challenge nothing. And here's the thing.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at our children. Are they better or worse? Now I'm not saying we should go back, you know, to how I was raised. Are you crying? I'll give you something to cry about.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:That's not what I'm saying. Okay? I think you know healthy parenting is good. Know, don't beat your children. Don't scream at your children.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Don't belittle your children. But let them face life because life is difficult. Life is challenging. And listen listen to what Jesus says in Matthew six twenty five. Let let's look at this together.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This is just so amazing here. He says, therefore I tell you. So Jesus speaking, these aren't my thoughts. These are his thoughts. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we're all terrible Christians already. Amen? Because we're not anxious about other people's lives, we're anxious about our own life. And this is where it comes from. He says, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This one's hilarious. We're gonna talk about that. Or what you will put on it, which I appreciate if you put something on it and you're at church today. If you're watching Home Alone, that's on you. You choose you choose your level of clothing if you watch online.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But at church, amen, we want that body clothed. Well clothed. Right? Well clothed. But here's what Jesus is saying is, you are overly focused on your life and it's causing you deep deep anxiety.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so here's one of things I wanna challenge you. There's just so many people today that are like, you know what, I can't control this and we've bought into this idea that there's nothing I can do about my anxiety. I want you to know that I am a person that has struggled deeply with anxiety. It's been something with me. I thought it was just something that came to my life in my thirties, but through counseling my counselor was able to identify, hey, when you were six, I'm telling a story when I was six.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's all, that's anxiety. I was like, really? He's like, yeah. That's anxiety. I've been an anxious person as long as I've been alive.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's something I've had to battle with and wrestle with. And Jesus doesn't say that's how I made you, Matt, to be anxious. He says Matt, I'm gonna challenge your anxiety. Okay. I want you to think about three things.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. If I'm battling anxiety, is this something I need to give to God? Okay. Is this something I need to give to God?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Is this something that I need to go to a doctor for? Or is this something that I need to work on? So there's three issues that I want you to think about. Is this a God issue? Is this a me issue?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Or is this a medical issue? Now here's the problem. In droves parents are sending their kids and saying it's a medical issue. Maybe it is. Sometimes people need medication and we don't need to shame that but we don't always need medication.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus doesn't say go to a doctor. He says come to me. Let's talk about this. Let's work this out together. And so in my book everyday miracle, okay, I don't make any money off this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't wanna hear about it. I talk specifically about how your doctor, God, and you can partner together to experience the healing you want. Because here's the thing, some of you you're on medicine and you've never asked God for a miracle. If medicine is not working, why not ask the Messiah? Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why not? What do you have to lose? But some of you as Christians are like, it's all God. It's all God. I'm like, what ain't working?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's what I would say. Here's the stigma for medicine and counseling and psychology. If I have a broken arm and it hurts, let's all pray for it. Let's ask God to heal it. Okay?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And let's pray in faith. But if it doesn't heal, somebody take me to the doctor. Don't be like, we need to pray again. We're gonna Jericho and march around his arm. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. No. Take me to the doctor. But as Christians, sometimes we're a little slow when it comes to this. Oh, you think I need therapy?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Yes. Everyone in your life thinks you need therapy. So don't be afraid to do the work. To do the work and to be able to say things like, you know, maybe this device isn't good for me. There's a direct correlation to the amount of time that you spend on your phone, on social media, in technology, watching screens and anxiety.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The statistics are married. So stop asking God to do what he's asking you to do, which is put this down. Put this down. That's right. It would be so interesting.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, we talked on fasting two weeks ago on the levels of anxiety in our church for those who did a digital fast. Okay. I don't have those statistics for us because we didn't we didn't ask for it, but I can tell you the statistics that are taken over and over and over again and it never changes. People who detox from digital media feel better about themselves. So Jesus is saying, don't be anxious about your life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He's challenging your anxiety and that's all I'm asking you to do. Would you let Jesus challenge your anxiety and not settle for the answer? Well, this is just how I am. I just have to be miserable my whole life. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But what if some of that is your choice? So think about what can God do? What can I do? And what could medicine do? So let's look at these three issues that Jesus brings up.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The first one is, something I think we all need to wrestle with, it's what will I eat? Now we live in a culture where we shouldn't be eating. Amen? Like like we're like, yeah, I'm I need to stop. But in Jesus's day, people were starving.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The amount of people that went hungry and starved was incredible. We have no idea what famine would look like in our lives. Tammy and I were in Ireland last week. Half the population, half died in thirty years from lack of food. They starved to death, died in the streets, died in the streets.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The church that I spoke in last week, they have a crypt underneath it. They don't even know who those people are. People just dropped off bodies of the church and they said, we'll take them. They had no idea. We have no concept.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And in a day and age like that, Jesus says, don't worry about what you're gonna eat. And that's not our problem today. Right? We stand in front of the refrigerator. There's nothing in here to eat.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I mean, we're anxious about what we're gonna eat. You have a thousand choices every day. Even if you have no money, you go to Del Taco, they didn't even take money. Like you could like do a dance or like here's a burrito.
McKay Vandenberg:But
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:look at this next one. He says, or about your body. Now there's a reason I picked the ESV instead of the NLT. Because in the Greek it separates these two ideas, my body and my clothing. These are two different ideas that go together but think about the level of anxiety we feel because we don't feel good about our bodies.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We all feel and experience body shame. Now I go to the gym and everybody at the gym now, they're videoing themselves with their shirts off like live chatting people online. I just miss that confidence level. You know what I'm saying? I don't know where that was distributed, but I'm not like, you know what I need to do is take my shirt off right now and, you know, film for my fans.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But but let me just tell you young people, your body imaging gets worse as you get older. It gets worse. Like you look in the mirror and it doesn't look better. Old people, listen to me, this is why God allows our eyesight to go bad. And then science came along and gave us glasses.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And now we're like, ah. So Tammy and I were in Florida a couple months ago during spring break. And you know, there there's all these people out basking in the sun. And I'm walking by and this is what you do guys, you know, walking by and there's a bunch of ladies. We'll call them college students.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know. I I'm getting so old now. I don't know the age range that people are in. But these ladies were much younger than me, so I walked by and I did I did this. You know?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then they didn't they didn't even look. Like, oh, I was like, I was invisible as I walked by. And then right next to these three young ladies are these three old ladies drinking way too much. You know what I'm saying? It's like grandma's on vacation.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And as I'm walking by, all the three old ladies go, oh. And wife, I was like, I got nothing from the young ladies. The seniors are like, let's get a golf cart and run off together. Like, oh my gosh. It gets worse.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But but think about it. All of us are so worried about how we look physically. It's one of the reasons I think Jesus says there isn't marriage in heaven because so much of our identity is wrapped up in our sexual identity. Am I wanted? Am I perceived to be seen as sexy?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And what Jesus just says, look in eternity, we're gonna put we're gonna move that away so that we can focus on who you really are rather than what you look like. So then he says, and what I will put on my body, right, my clothes. I mean, think about this when we go to church, most of us spend more time clothing our body than we do preparing our spirit. Ladies, like compare the amount of times you change your outfits, guys, you you just showed up. Right?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We just it is up, miss me. But ladies, compare the amount of times you change outfits to the amount of times you prayed before you came to church. I'm I'm guessing the Lord loses every time. Okay? We got a big old mirror and a small Bible.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So think about that. What am I gonna put on? These are the things that we worry about. Now this isn't an exhaustive list. Jesus is just throwing these things out.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Stop worrying about what you're gonna eat. Stop worrying about your body. Stop worrying about what you're gonna wear. And then Jesus says something amazing. Look at this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus points. He points to nature. Look at this. He points to nature. Hold on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'll get that in a second. He points to nature to prove God's concern for me. Okay? Now, look what Jesus says in Matthew six twenty six. Look at this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He says, look at the birds. Now when's the last time you did that? Are are bird watchers cool? Is any child said, wanna grow up and be a bird watcher? Or is this what happens when you just sell out on life?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're like, you know what? I'm done. I'm done. I'm gonna watch birds. But Jesus says, look at the birds.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look at the birds. And look what he says. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father, what does he do? Do you see it?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Jesus says, look at nature. God takes care of them. But we don't like looking at birds, do we?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We don't wanna be a bird watcher. Jesus said, you should be. Stop looking at yourself. Look at the birds. And look at how I control the birds.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now I get a little triggered with the word bird because I went to school in the eighties. And in the eighties, it was brutal. K? We didn't cuddle. We didn't we didn't care if you were triggered.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And so literally, when I was in elementary school, we had two tracks for school. We had early birds and late birds. K? Early birds were the smart kids. Late birds, we were the special kids.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what I'm saying? And I wanted to be an early bird. My mom was like, we just love you for the late bird that you are. Some of you are angry birds. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're just like here's the thing. What is Jesus saying? K. The early bird may get the worm. Listen to this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But birds work and don't worry. He's not calling you to be a lazy bird. That's why my life's in God's hands. No. No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No. Get a job, lazy fool. Go to work. But what he's saying is you shouldn't worry. Because some of us were so focused on am I gonna have enough?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I don't know if I'm gonna have enough. I know if I can pay rent. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to retire. I don't know if I'm gonna I don't know if I'm gonna and we just lose our minds and we miss out on the beauty of just gathering enough food for today. It's interesting what what the Lord tried to teach the people of Israel when they were in the desert.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He gave them manna and he said this, only gather enough for today. And people couldn't do it. It showed up every day, but here's the thing, didn't trust God, did they? And so they would collect more than they needed. And you know what happened to the manna that was more than they needed?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It rotted. And God is trying to teach them. Think about the Lord's prayer that pastor Justin preached on a couple weeks ago. Give me right food for today. Give me my daily bread.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Help me to trust you every day because here's what happens to people with excess. They stop trusting God. It happens over and over and over again. And so what we wanna do is we wanna stop and we wanna say, you know what God, I'm gonna trust you. You take care of the birds.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You take care of them every day and you love me infinitely more than them. So I'm going to choose today to trust that you're gonna take care of me, that you're concerned for me. You know what this says? You're unseen, unloved, unlikable, and unfollowable. This says you don't matter.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:This says you do. This says you do. And Jesus is saying, get off your phone and get in the word. And trust me, if I take care of the birds, and think about the birds, there's some ugly birds out there. Amen?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like can you imagine if God made you a woodpecker? I'd go insane. You know? Like have you ever walked by a woodpecker? I'm sick, why?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Why? What a terrible way to gather your food. Ramming your head into a log. But Jesus says consider the birds, look at the birds. Now I don't like doing this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So at Tammy and I's house, we have a bird's nest, not one that we planted, one the Lord planted, right above our entry door into our house. And I've thought about killing those birds. I'm not proud of it. Okay? Don't call PETA.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm just saying I had a thought. And those birds have been there now for three years. They make babies in there. So loud. I'm like, hey, trying to sleep in here.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The babies cry. They poop all over the front of our house. But here's the thing, I struggle trusting God to take care of me. And I don't look at birds. So I know the Lord put that bird there to remind me every single day that he cares for me.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know? And then I look at the poop and I'm like, Lord, I wanna kill him. But I don't. And I just leave it there. And sometimes they dive bomb me when I walk out.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I'm like, it's my house. And the Lord's like, no, no, no, it's my house. I'm like, okay. It's alright. It's alright.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's right. Never ever try to out preach Jesus. It's you're gonna lose. Next, look at this. Jesus demonstrates how powerless my anxious thoughts are.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You wanna talk about the most worthless thing you do in your life? It's worry. Think about whatever you're worried about right now. Think about it. Will it change?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Not at all. Not at all. I love stand up comedians. If I wasn't a Christian, I would be one and I would be good. I'm telling you, I'd be so good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Probably not going to heaven, but I'd be good. But I follow this comedian. His name is Mike Goodwin, and he has this incredible shtick that he does. He's a black guy, looks like professors, got little tiny glasses, dresses like he goes to Harvard. He's a hilarious hilarious guy, but he says this, every single person in the world only has two problems.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You only got two things in your life. Two things in your life to worry about. Two things, you wanna hear them? Two things. Are you sick or are you healthy?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you're healthy, you got nothing to worry about. If you're sick, you only got two things to worry about. You're gonna get better or you're gonna get worse. If you get better, you ain't got nothing to worry about. If you get worse, you only got two things to worry about.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're gonna live or you're gonna die. If you live, you ain't got nothing to worry about. If you die, you only got two things to worry about. You going to heaven or you going to hell? If you going to heaven, you got nothing to worry about.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you go in hell, you got two things to worry about. Original or extra crispy. Right? That's what that's what he says. That's what he says.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But I thought what a perfect thing to get us to laugh about. How silly the things that we worry about are. Look what Jesus says. Now he's not as funny as Mike, but look at this. And which of you which of you by being anxious can add in your bibles, I want you to circle this word because we're gonna come back to Jesus.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Jesus is the most brilliant preacher, teacher, thinker in the history of the world. So look what he says, and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span of his life or her life? Matter of fact, do you know what the research shows? The more you worry, the more you shrink your life. The shorter your life gets.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Am I gonna die? Am I gonna die? I'm gonna die. Well, it's sooner the more you think about it. K?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can worry add a single hour to your life? Listen to me moms, can worrying about your children help them? Just do it tonight. Worry all night. Stay up all night and just worry worry worry worry.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You can't do anything. Worry can do nothing, but you know what can do something? Praying. You see worry is meditation on self, prayer is meditation on God. God can do something about this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Can worry add a single hour to his span of life. And why are you anxious about clothing? Why? The things that we worry about, the outfits that we wear. Man, I look at some of the things that I wore ten years ago, fifteen years ago, twenty years ago and I was like, I planned that.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Like I went on a hunt, I saw I spent money on that and I wore that. And all the young people that laugh at what we wore, I look at you now and I'm like, that's gonna be hilarious. That's gonna be hilarious. And all the young people are thrifting now. Your kids are gonna laugh at you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're gonna laugh at you. You wore smelly clothes? Yes. Yes, you did. Okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen what he says. He says consider the lilies of the field. When's the last time you just looked at a flower and enjoyed its beauty and you thought about it. Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow. Now in Jesus day and age, they didn't know about how flowers grew.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It was magic. They didn't know. But listen to what Jesus says. He says they neither toil nor spin. They're not working for it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're not trying. Yet I tell you Jesus says even Solomon. Now some of you don't know who he was. He was the richest king in Israel's history. His money had money, amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He had Jeff Bezos money. He had Amazon money, you know what I'm talking? He had Tesla money. Yet even Solomon in all his glory, look at this, was not arrayed like one of these. Man, when's the last time you considered the flowers?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now Tammy and I last week, we went to Ireland and we went to one of the world heritage sites. It's considered one of the most beautiful sites on earth. It's called the Giant's Causeway. And it's these octagonal shapes that that were occurred by, you know, heat and volcanic, know, power and all this stuff. The Irish think giants made it, but you know, they've been drinking.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And it's one of the most it's one of the most stunning things you will ever see. It's like God tiled the beach. It's incredible. But as I was preparing for this message and I was reading through what I had to preach, you know what I decided to look at? The flowers.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I'm gonna post some of the pictures that I took just of the flowers growing up through volcanic rock. The harshness of Irish winter, the difficult nature of the salt air and in the middle of octagonal rocks, these flowers growing. In the middle of the brutality of life, listen to me, God's beauty is there if you look for it. And Jesus says, man, if you're going through something, okay, I get it. I get it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Life is hard. Life is challenging. But here's the thing, when we focus on our challenges, life gets more challenging. He says sometimes you gotta look for the lily. You gotta look for the flower.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And then look what he says, but if God so clothes the grass of the field. Now we're not even talking about flowers. We're not talking about birds. We're talking about lawns. Now I know we're in SoCal.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We don't know what that is, but the rest of the world has grass. Amen? But listen what he says about grass, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into an oven. They used to burn it. It is just it's here for a moment.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Look what he says. Will he not much more clothe you? And then look at this in your Bibles. Circle this in your Bibles. Where's the root of my anxiety?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:There it is. Oh, you have little faith. Oh, you have little faith. So I used to be incredibly frightened by flying, terrified. When I was a kid in elementary school, a b 52 bomber crashed at the end of our playground.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I heard it explode, I saw the smoke, I saw the teachers crying, and it sent me into a whirlwind of fear. Okay? PTSD didn't exist in the eighties. They gave you orange slices. That's how you got over it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know? Suck it up. Go to school. And and and really after 09:11, it just it just it just spun out of control. I spent $3,500 on a ticket to South Africa.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I never made it. I had a panic attack on the airplane had to get off. How did I work through it? Here's how I had to work through it. I had to come to the conclusion that just like God cares for the birds, just like God cares for the lilies, just like God cares for the grass, he cares for me and he has a call on my life.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And if it's my time to go on that airplane, then it's my time to go and my life is in his hands. Tammy and I were landing in DC last week and the plane was shaking and we're bouncing all over the place and we're doing that thing where you drop and you go up and you drop and you go up and the pilot's been drinking. You know what I'm saying? And I look over at Tammy and she's freaking out and I was like, what's your problem? That feels so good to say.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know, I was like, just judge her, you know, hey, be faithful like me, your spiritual leader. But but you know what? It is scary when the plane goes up and down. But here's the thing, no matter if life goes up and down, if your life is in God's hands, it's right there steady. And here's the thing, God doesn't need to take me home on an airplane, he can do it anytime he wants.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:My life is in his hands. And just how he cares for the birds and how he cares for the flowers and how he cares for the grass of the field, he cares immensely more for me. And when I trust in that and know that he has a plan, I'm okay. I'm okay. But when I forget that plan and I am of little faith, what happens?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I am overwhelmed with anxiety. Look at Matthew six thirty one and thirty two. Matthew six thirty one through 32. Therefore, so here's what we're moving towards. Therefore, right, this is a huge transition in the text.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Do not be anxious. That's the command. You don't have to be anxious because you're more loved than you know. You're more safe than you know. And even if you die and you're a Christian, you're okay.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You got nothing to worry about. You're in heaven. Therefore do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat? What shall we eat? And do you know Jesus probably preached this to starving people?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:What shall we drink? And what shall we wear? Right? So nudity in our culture is an expression of sexuality. In Jesus day, nudity was an expression of poverty.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You were so broke, you're nude. Jesus don't worry about it. Even if you're naked and ashamed, you were deeply loved and you matter to God. Then listen to this pivot. He says this, for the Gentiles seek after all these things.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now if you have the New Living Translation, it says this, this is how unbelievers act. Here's the problem many of you as believers are acting like unbelievers. He says for the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. Do you think when you pray the Lord is like woah, I didn't know. Angels, did you know this?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Did you know this? God already knows. God already knows what you need. And then so many Christians say, well then why do I need to ask? Because he doesn't answer prayers you don't ask.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:He already knows what you need, but he only answers prayers that you ask. So think about this, he's preaching to naked, hungry, starving people and they feel like they're unseen. They feel like they don't matter. Okay. They're they're they're not on this but they're looking around and they're seeing all the wealth of the Roman Empire.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They're seeing the fashion of the Greeks and they're looking at themselves, God's chosen people and they're hungry, starving and naked. And what does Jesus teach us to do? Look at this man, to seek God first. What is the secret solution to your anxiety? Here's what it's not.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Think about what stresses you out. Stay up all night going crazy because you can't fix it. Here's what will take away and lower the level of your anxiety going to the one who can change the problem you're facing. Seek God first. Have you prayed about it?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:No, I'm thinking about it. I'm stressing about it. I'm worrying about it. I'm overwhelmed about it. Great.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Now let's try God. Matthew six thirty three, one of the most famous verses in the Bible. Matthew six thirty three, but seek first the kingdom of God. Why are you anxious? It's your kingdom.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You're worried? It's your kingdom. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Listen to this, and all these things will be added unto you. So last week I was in Dublin, Ireland and we were praying over churches that had planted in Europe.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And here's the thing, Tammy and I, we planted Sandals Church and and I know many of you sit in Sandals, it's a big church, you see all these buildings, you're overwhelmed and and and you just gotta know it didn't start that way. There was a lot of fear. There were a lot of fights. There were a lot of sleepless nights. We didn't know how we were gonna pay our bills.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We didn't know how we were gonna make it. And a lot of my Christian friends thought sandals was a joke. And we were scared. And here's the thing is, Tammy and I love church planters because we get it. But at least I got to plant a church in America.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I didn't have to plant in Europe. Europe disdains Christianity, they disdain it. And so we got to gather together with some church planters and here's the thing, they're all struggling, they're all crying out to God, how are we gonna pay our bills? How are we gonna make it? Lord, do you hear us?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And we brought four church planters up on stage, one who's planting in Spain, One who's planting in Switzerland, One who's planting in France, and one who's planting in England, in The UK. And they don't know how they're gonna make it. And they're crying out to God and they're stressing and they're worrying out and we brought them up to pray. What they didn't know is we're gonna give them each one of them 30,000 Euro. They didn't know it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:They were freaked out, they were worried about it. We weren't just gonna pray over them, we're gonna meet a need. And Tammy and I got to get up there with a couple other pastors. Let me tell you, it was one of the most moving moments in my life to look at these church planters and say you're not alone. God has heard your cry.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And I want you to know Sandals Church because of your generosity, because of your faithfulness. We were able to meet the needs of four church planters in Europe. And when we told them we're giving him €30,000 a piece, they began to shake and they began to cry and they began to weep. I mean, the guy from France, the French know how to cry. Let me tell you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Let me tell you. That dude I was like, it's okay. It's okay. Bring it down a notch. Bring it down a notch.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:The guy from Switzerland was just boom, you know. But can I just tell you, it was amazing to be a part of a Matthew six thirty three moment? Don't worry about the the money, seek God. God's gonna take care of you. None of those pastors had ever met me had ever heard of Sandals Church.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But God had heard of Sandals Church. God has met me and God knows them in the name of their churches and he used us to answer their prayer. Amen. So thank you. Thank you so much.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It was one of the most moving moments of my life. So here's what I wanna challenge you. So many of you guys you're like, I I just don't know what to do. I want you to know this. You can control your decisions, but God controls the outcome.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So what do you do when you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? You control your decisions. You choose what you watch. You choose what you do. You choose where you go.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:And many times what you watch, where you go, and what you do is making you more anxious. So stop it and quit asking God to fix something he's asking you to fix. You do not control the outcome but you do control your choice. So choose wisely. Next, look at this.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Stay present. Now any child from the eighties, we had to stay present. Right? We didn't have any games. We weren't watching screens.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:You know what we did? We stood in line like a real American. We stood stared at the back of people's heads. Amen? Nobody's present now.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Everybody's on their phone. You know, I've been to some of the most beautiful places on earth. You know people are looking at? Their phones. Couldn't believe it.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Tammy and I went up on a bus tour last week. We got off the bus. There was a bunch of young people on on the bus. They didn't even get out to look at what they paid to see. They were on their phones.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Listen to me young people learn to be present. Learn to be in the moment. Find an old person who drank out of the hose in the front yard and they'll teach you. You're like, was it filtered water? No.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We drank that lead and we loved it. Matthew six thirty four. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Why? Why?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:For tomorrow will be anxious for itself. You're like, what's gonna happen tomorrow? I don't know, but it'll be stressful. It'll be scary. Listen to the words of Jesus, sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Today's enough. It's enough. Oh my gosh. My son got a d in English. What does that mean?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Will he go to jail? Will he be in prison? Will he become an axe murderer? Quit watching true crime and start reading this. You know what's sufficient for today?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Talking to your kid about the d. Talking about right now, right here. Quit throwing everything into the future because all that does is make it worse. Focus on right here, right now. Married couples, you wanna know fights get out of control?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because our minds get out of control and they run into the future. Kids not divorce, he just forgot to take out the trash. That's it. It's not it doesn't doesn't not love you. You know, your mother's not right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:It's just the trash. He just forgot it happens. Stay in the moment. Stay in the moment. Stay present.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:If you can do these things, listen to me, your anxiety may not go away but you know what I guarantee, It will be less. It will be less. And know this, Jesus loves you and he wants to set you free from the worries of life. And this is the truth of God's word. So we're gonna do is we're just gonna close and I wanna pray for people that are battling anxiety.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:I've been there. I get it. It is debilitating. It is overwhelming. And can I just tell you for those of you who don't wrestle with it, it's frightening?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Because here's the thing. Here's the thing at my lowest moments. Here's what I was afraid of. This is never gonna get better. Boy, that's that's defeating.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:But listen to me and I wanna speak the words of Jesus over every single person that's believing the lies of the devil that you will never get better. We worship a Jesus who can change things. He can take dead things, amen, and he can make them living things. So here's how we're gonna pray today. If you're if you're battling with anxiety, if you're overwhelmed with fear, if you are just a professional worrier, I just wanna pray for you.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So would you just raise your hand? And what we're gonna do is we're gonna ask the church to extend our hands because you're not in this alone. You have a church family that loves you. We don't need to know what it is. We just need to know that you need prayer.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:So if you need prayer, would you raise your hands? The front row, anybody over here? Thank you, brother. Over here, amen. So Sandals Church, would you just extend your hands and pray over these people?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Okay. Don't touch them in a weird way. Just give them more anxiety. Just lay your hands out there and just pray. Lord Jesus, you know these people.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Lord, you know the worries of their life. God, you know how overwhelmed they are with anxiety. Lord Jesus, would you just in your power and by your name and by your word, would you just speak peace over these people and help them to know that they are loved and seen and held in your hands and there's nothing nothing that can ever separate them from your love. And Lord Jesus, would you just help them to press into you as you press into them? And would you just lower their anxiety?
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:We pray this in Jesus' holy name. And all God's people said, amen.
McKay Vandenberg:Sandals Church, thank you so much.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have the YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.
McKay Vandenberg:Like Matt said in the message, one of those ways is to dive into the word. And here at Sandals Church, we have recently redesigned our app to help you with spiritual practices, daily rhythms to be in the word, to reflect on it, and ultimately to pray with others. We believe all of these things will help us grow as faithful followers and disciples of Jesus. Sometimes though we need an extra step. We need to talk to someone.
McKay Vandenberg:We need to connect with a real person. And when it's online, that's a little bit harder. But we do have a place for you. You can go to sandalschurch.com/help. It will come to our online team and we'll be able to connect and pray and help minister to you however you see fit and however we can best support you.
Morgan Teruel:If you are being blessed by the ministry of Sandals Church and the work that we are doing here, we would love and encourage you to support that we're the work that we're doing to help reach people all over the world. One way you can do that is by going to sandalschurch.com/support and giving today. We love you guys. We're praying for you. Grace and peace.