Discovering God's Purpose for My Life | Sandals Church

[Music] stop [Music] [Music] welcome welcome welcome welcome to sound search man what a great weekend last weekend we celebrated 20 years at Sandals Church you know everybody I ran into this week and nobody said anything about 20 years nobody said anything about you know the tears the emotion my family our vacation everybody asked about the dog house the dog so I didn't share that story in every message last weekend but I told a story where my dog was attacked by coyotes and I didn't say what happened she's alive she's well she's still limping cuz she's a little worse because she's our dog but she's gonna make it so I just want to let everybody know who has their priorities out of whack the dog is gonna live all right but let's talk today about sandals church we're in this series called launched and what we're gonna do is we're gonna focus in this series talking about where God is taking us so in our 20-year anniversary sermon I shared with you that God put on my heart when we started sandals church that we want to launch 500 campuses 500 churches for the glory and the kingdom of God and we want to see Souls and lives changed and so in this series we're gonna talk specifically about raising additional money for three new campuses to those campuses I'm going to talk about specifically one of those campuses we still can't come out publicly yet but it looks like it's almost 99% sure and so we're gonna talk about launching literally not only campuses but God's purpose for our lives and so I just want to begin with the word of Prayer and I want to pray over you that whatever you think your purpose is whatever you think your reason is for being here for being a part of santol church for being on this earth is my prayer is that you would at least listen to Jesus because he has a purpose for your life and we're gonna talk about that today and I believe that if you pursue your own passions you'll be miserable but if you pursue the passions of Jesus you're going to discover his majesty and you're going to live literally an incredible life so let's pray together Heavenly Father lord I pray for us Lord as one church that meets in multiple locations god I pray that you would move in our hearts God that you would unite us together in Jesus name to discover our purpose and help us to figure out God what is it we're supposed to be doing and why is it that we're launching we pray this in Jesus amen I'm gonna talk about today one of my favorite passages of Scripture and I love this passage of Scripture it's when I preached on this one time in Israel it was one of the most holy moments of my life this next June we're gonna be going to Israel and I want to encourage you to go with us this would probably be the last time I go for at least 10 years I've been this would be my fourth time and so if you want to go with me this is your opportunity to come what we're gonna go to the exact spot where Jesus talked to his disciples about this issue about what is it that you're supposed to do with your life what is it that you're supposed to do as a Christian so in Matthew 16 verses 13 through 19 it says when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi now I want you to circle in your outlines these two names because Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and he takes his Jewish disciples to the center literally of the cultic region of Jerusalem the Northern Kingdom is the center of lost people they are known as the tribe of Judah that rebels against God they they literally deny their faith in God and pursue their own form of worship they don't go to Temple and Jesus takes them to the most unholy spot in all of Israel and it's here in Caesarea Philippi and look at those two names Caesarea Philippi neither of these guys are Jews or our prophets or our famous people in the scriptures Caesarea will that Caesar that's the Roman King Philippi that's named after literally Alexander the Great's dad Philip this area has been conquered it's no longer Jewish its Gentile and so Jesus takes him to the northern area where now this city in this region isn't even named after anything Jewish it's totally pagan totally not Christian not Jewish and he takes him to this one spot at the base of Mount Hermon now Mount Hermon is the largest mountain in the area of Israel it's an over 9,000 feet and he takes him to this spot at the very bottom of the mountain and it's this massive cave and in this cave there's this stream that flows and it was so deep in the ancient world they couldn't measure it and so they believed that that literally was the entrance to hell and so what did the pagans do they built a temple around it to worship there because they didn't worship the one true God they literally are worshiping hell and here's this temple all around this and so Jesus takes them to the gates of Hell and he has this conversation he asked the disciples he says who do the people say the Son of Man is now this is just one of those names that Jesus's use to describe himself well they replied some say John the Baptist and if you don't know who he is he was a famous religious leader that was decapitated by King Herod his famous guy but he challenged the king and he lost his head and some say well you you're John the Baptist you come back others say Elijah of another famous Jewish prophet others say Jeremiah kind of a weeping depressed prophet always giving bad news apparently Jesus was a little Moody or one of the other prophets and then he asked them and underline this every single human being has to answer this question but who do you say that I am who do you say that I am God wants to know what I think what you think and everybody's intimidated right cuz nobody you know wants to get the question wrong when we're in school especially when your teachers Jesus you know you don't want to get it wrong so there's only one guy dumb enough to speak up and his name is Simon Peter and he's used to putting both feet in his mouth on any given circumstance and this is what he says he says you're the Messiah you're the son of the Living God I believe you're the one that came to save us you're the one we've been waiting for that's who you are and jesus replied he says you're blessed why because when you figure out who Jesus is you're not only blessed in this life you're blessed for eternal life he says you're blessed Simon son of John because my father in heaven has revealed this to you you did not learn this from any human being says Peter you didn't figure this out on your own God figured it out for you and he told you and look at verse 18 he says and now I say that you are Peter and Peter's name means rock little rock means pebble Tetris that's what it means in the Greek he says your name is Simon Peter but I'm gonna call you Peter you're a little tiny rock you're a little tiny pebble and this is who we are as people we don't make a big difference on her own but listen to what he says and he says upon this rock upon this Pet Ross this giant rock here I will build my church Jesus announces at the gates of hell in front of his disciples in the most pagan non-religious section of Israel he says Peter I'm gonna use you to build my church and the powers of Hell will not conquer it remember where they're at they're at the gates of hell it's not gonna conquer it he says and I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven I want you to write this down when I discover who Jesus is when I discover circle the word I now if you're a Christian and you're a parent listen to me you can't get your kids saved they have to discover Jesus for themselves like we can lead the horse to water but we can't make it drink we can tell our kids who Jesus is we can raise them up with all the right information but at some point in their life they have to come to the cross they have to decide who Jesus is just like every one of you it doesn't matter if you erased Catholic it doesn't matter if you erased Lutheran or Baptist it doesn't matter if you've attended sandals for your entire life you must discover who Jesus is when I discover who Jesus is I discover what my purpose is this is why so many young people are lost today they don't know what they're supposed to do because they don't know who Jesus is they don't have a clue Jesus says this is one of my favorite verses mark 8:35 if you try to hang on to your life you'll what you'll lose it this is why everybody's so miserable look at our culture everyone's living for themselves these are my dreams this is my purpose everybody believes I deserve to be happy and everyone's more miserable than ever jesus said 2,000 years ago if you live for yourself you'll make yourself miserable and here's why your biggest problem is you it's you right I can only hang out by myself for so long and then I'm depressed and discouraged cuz I irritate me I do I get irritated just all on my own if you try to hang out on to your life you will lose it but listen to what he says but if if you give up your life for my sake Jesus says and for the sake of the good news that means spreading Christianity telling people about Jesus it's good news you will save it if you give up your life telling people how there's hope if you tell people how there's a way if you tell people if you spread this news you're gonna find your life and you're gonna find your purpose but if you live for yourself if you live for only you if you live to make yourself and you only happy you're going to be miserable and you're gonna be lost you see Jesus wants us to switch living for the kingdom of me and he wants us to live for the kingdom of we we don't live for ourselves but we live for him and his family listen I've learned this and I don't know where you are in your faith but when I live for myself I'm sunk but when Jesus is the center of my life I'm saved I have never screwed up my life by asking what does Jesus want me to do I have screwed up my life over and over and over again by asking this question what do I want to do what do I want to do because many times in my life the desires I have destroy my life the desires that God has for me never destroy my life he wants to give me eternal life here's why people are miserable they're asking the wrong questions they're asking what do I want and what they need to ask is what does God want from my life and when you switch that question you're going to get a different answer and oftentimes we arrive at the wrong conclusions because we ask the wrong questions so my purpose is to join Jesus that's my purpose that's my purpose once I know who Jesus is once I know who he is here's my purpose my purpose is to join him Peter says you were the Messiah the son of the Living God once he knows who Jesus is he knows what he's supposed to do I'm supposed to join him I'm supposed to follow him even when Jesus does weird things Jesus does weird things like this he says crazy weird things like this unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you'll have no part of my kingdom you know what happens everybody bails cuz that's weird that's a weird combo like if we're having Thanksgiving dinner and I'm like chew on this forearm if you don't you're going to hell right I think you guys are like oh hell doesn't sound that bad you're gonna you're gonna leave it's a really really weird statement and Jesus turns to the disciples and he says are you two gonna leave me and you know what Peter says I can't Lord I mean that was a little creepy that was a little weird maybe we need to have a press conference and talk about what you really meant but Peter says this you alone have the words that lead to eternal life I can't I can't go anywhere else because you're the only one that can save me Peter says my purpose is to join Jesus and he says to die with Jesus and to live for Jesus Jesus said to his disciples if any of you wants to be my follower right in there that means a Christian that's what a Christians supposed to mean oftentimes we use religion to describe culture I'm Muslim what it means is you live in a Muslim culture or I'm Christian you live in a Christian culture literally what we need to ask is are you following Jesus are you a follower of Jesus then jesus said to his disciples if anyone wants to be my follower he's not interesting interested in a label he's interested in you following him you must turn from your selfish ways take up your cross and he says and you must follow me you got to turn you got to turn away from your life and his life it's the only way to discover eternal life is to turn from your life to his life it's the only way there's no other way you must turn from your selfish ways and you must take up your cross listen to me the way of Jesus's sacrifice that's the way of Jesus there's a lot of Christians running around that God wants you to be fat and happy and rich all the time that's not always true if you've never sacrificed you have to ask yourself have I ever followed Jesus because if he says you're supposed to sacrifice daily and you've never sacrificed that's a problem God doesn't want you to kill yourself that's what a sacrifice is you want you to kill your desires every single day it's your desires that you lay on the altar that's what you kill take up your cross and follow me Matthew 4:19 Jesus called out to them he says come follow me and he says and I will show you how to fish for people Jesus is in the business of catching people people who are lost people who are broken people who are hurting this is what Jesus is about what Jesus wants us to do is to learn from him how to catch people how to save souls you see the disciples most of them knew how to catch fish they'd have a clue how to catch people and if you don't believe me read Peter he doesn't have a clue how to reach people the disciples know how to offend people they don't know how to catch people my purpose is to join Jesus let me tell you this man I hear people all the time oh my relationship with Jesus personal it's not just personal it's purposeful you have a purpose and your purpose is not yourself your purpose is to join Jesus what is Jesus doing he's catching fish and I don't know if you know this but when Jesus fishes there's a lot there's a lot and that's why sandals has to keep growing we have to keep doing this because Jesus wants to not to catch fish but to catch people who are lost who are giving up who are giving in marriages that are literally ready to collapse people who say there's no purpose in my life anymore listen when a person gets to the end of themselves they're ready for the beginning of Jesus they're ready for that we don't run from broken people as Christians we run to them that's what we're called to do we're called to catch people so what is Jesus doing Jesus is building his church that's what he's doing that's why I spent the last 20 years of my life building his church why because that's what he's doing he's doing it he literally took the disciples to the gates of hell and he said I'm gonna build my church and I don't care how magnificent think about it they're standing at this magnificent temple built over this hole at the bottom of a 9,000 foot rock they couldn't even imagine in those days how high the mountain went they can't even imagine and Jesus says my kingdom is are going to overcome hell at the bottom of this mighty mountain Jesus is building his church he said to Peter now I say to you that your Peter which means Rock and upon this rock I will build my church man Jesus is saying I'm gonna build my church but listen to me I'm not gonna build it without you I'm not gonna do this without you here's the thing about Jesus he invites us to be a part of the building he invites us every single one of us in one of the books that Peter writes in the Bible he says this that God is building a temple and he's doing it with living stones every single one of us is a living stone and God is building not a physical temple but a spiritual one every single one of you is an essential part to the building we need every single one of you all of us are a little literally a little rock that God is using to do something magnificent with all of us are every single one of us has a part to play every single one of us has a role it's not what I do it's what we do so Jesus is building his church next the church is the family of God it's the family of God look at our world our world to miss our world is hurting our world is grieving and God's building a family Galatians 6:10 says this therefore whenever we have the opportunity we should do good to everyone look you should you should be a good person you should be a nice person to everyone especially circle this work especially those two the family of faith why would God say especially to the family of faith because you know who were the worst around our families we are we are way more rude to our families we act different around our families we're real in a negative way around our families like even when you move out of your home and you go back for a weekend you find yourself acting like the idiot you were when you were 15 what happened what's going on it's because all of us get very very comfortable with our sin in our families that's where the Bible says when we gather together as Christians we got to be especially nice to each other we have to mentally work on it because if not we'll just be so casual that we're cruel and here's the thing the more comfortable we are we are around people the more cruel we are think about what happens in families siblings make fun of each other hurt one another in fighting right sibling rivalry all of those things happen in the church so God's building a family and so what we've got to do is we've got to not act like we act on our own families we got to act like we are supposed to act in God's family first timothy 3:15 says this if i'm delayed you will know how people must conduct themselves into what the household of god why does the church matter which is the pillar and the foundation of truth why do you think the world wants to tear down the church because the church is the one place where the truth is proclaimed over and over and over again there's no plan b guys there's no plan B God has not called us to be social activists he's called us to save souls that's who were supposed to be the social stuff that we engage in that secondary saving souls is primary and we need to never get that backwards we can we can do ministry but we got to make sure that we don't literally forget the ministry we've got to press forward we've got to keep growing and telling people about Jesus because we're the pillar and the foundation of truth we are and most of our friends most of our family members most of our communities have never ever been in a church ever in their lives in the Inland Empire only 20 percent of your neighbors your co-workers and your friends go to church on the weekends some of them have never ever set foot in a church they have no idea what takes place in the church we need to be more honest more honest we need to be more real and we need to be more forgiving this week I went out to dinner with a couple from our church and I don't know if you've ever done this but you know you've gone out to dinner and you really don't want to be there and it's not because you don't want to be with him but it's because you had a bad day and we were sitting around at dinner and I just said look man I need to be real I said I got some really bad news today about something I've been praying for some of that I hope it was gonna happen and I just got some news that it's probably gonna happen and it's and I found out about it about 30 minutes before we went to dinner you know my wife said she said I didn't even know that I said I didn't have time to tell you I'm still processing this I said I don't want to ruin the evening but if I'm not real about this I'm gonna run the evening right because how we feel shows up with where we are and I said I can't put on this face and so right there in a restaurant in Riverside we prayed together the four of us for my attitude and my heart because I was bummed and I don't want you to think that that we need to be like put on a pretty face all the time but we need to be encouraging we need to be uplifting and we need to turn in Scripture but we need to be real with each other because it's our family it's our home it's the place where we're gonna be loved no matter what that's what family is supposed to be family's supposed to be the people that see the good the bad and ugly and love you and cheer you on anyways now many of us didn't grow up in those kind of families but that's the kind of family God wants us to grow up in the church we're God's for us and we're for each other and we're cheering one another on and we say you know what man I'm sorry that that's what happened and I love the fact that I can be in a church where as the leader I can say I'm not right I'm not right and before we go forward you know together tonight I need to just be real I'm bummed I'm I'm discouraged and I got to share that that's what the family of God is supposed to be where we can talk about what's really going on where you can literally show up to a small group and say you know what guys we're not right we fought all the way here we fought all the way here and here's why here's what we're dealing with and we can fight other people into our real issues where people can see the real us and still love us and a lot of people don't know why I picked the name sandals here's why I used to have this awful ugly toe fungus I don't anymore praise God because of medicine because of medicine you're laughing cuz you've never had dragon toenails but I had him and I was embarrassed by him man children would cry old ladies would faint it was awful when my wife and I first got married we'd lay in bed she'd say please don't rub your feet on me that's what my wife would say it's disgusting put your feet outside it's gross and here's the thing I would only wear sandals around you if I was 100% comfortable with you seeing the very ugliest part of me and I said that's the name of our church I want people to see the very worst of me and still love me I want people to be able to see things that I'm ashamed of and they still pray for me and they still come along side of me that's where the name sandals came from it didn't come from a resort I'd never been and never heard of sandals beach resorts I grew up poor I didn't know that I'd never heard of all-inclusive anything but let me say this man Jesus said that he's gonna build his church and I just want to share this as your pastor the church is losing in America we're losing we're losing badly the church is growing everywhere else and it's literally shrinking in America if you don't believe me just drive around your neighborhoods churches that were literally bustling full of people and Families 30 years ago many of them are being turned into condos some of them are being bulldozed for housing turned into schools turned into anything and everything but the actual facility that it was created for to bring people together to worship God some of you've come from those churches we're literally you gather and there's nobody in there and we need to do something about that we need to say Jesus you said you're gonna build your church and we believe it we believe it and we're going to do something about it we're not gonna let these millions and millions of dollars with the property simply be turned into profits so that they can build more houses and they can build more stuff we're gonna maintain these properties because let me tell you something the most difficult thing Sandals Church has ever faced was finding a location there was nothing harder we've never had a hard time reaching people we've had a hard time gaining property and there's all these properties going into foreclosure being sold being auctioned off in some cases being given away and in many cases being turned into mosques and Buddhist temples and that should bother you that should bother you if you've answered the question who is Jesus it should bother you because Buddha is not Jesus and Muhammad is not Jesus Jesus is Jesus it should bother us we should want Muslims to know how to be forgiving we should want Buddhists to know how to be saved we want them to know Buddha said this that the end that nirvana is simply not existing Jesus says that's not a choice you're gonna exist somewhere forever in his presence or banned from it but you're gonna exist do you know what that means there's no Nirvana there's no end to your soul do you understand that that's what nirvana is the end of your soul you finally escape creation we've talked about Hinduism with all I mean it's just confusing write this down the church must take ground we got to mobilize not with force but in love the church must take ground it breaks my heart when I Drive by churches that are falling apart and their people have given up hope and they've forgotten what we're all about it breaks my heart it makes me so sad the church must take ground jesus said this he says the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church many Christians don't understand this Jesus doesn't preach that hell is attacking the church he tells Peter we're going at the gates of hell we're not running from Satan we're running towards him and what gates do is they keep you out and in the ancient world a city's gates were a symbol of their protection a symbol of their superiority and he says not only are we gonna attack hell but we're gonna break through those gates and we're gonna save souls and he says who's with me who's with me we should not be retreating sandals we should be advancing the gospel should advance but why doesn't it I see three issues in the church today three major issues number one a lack of strategy let me just say this if you're not strong you better be smart I don't know about you but I wasn't born strong you better be smart you better learn to think let me tell you something as the church we're not strong so we better be smart and if you don't believe me listen to what Jesus said look I am sending you out a sheep among wolves that's not encouraging what do they have teeth what do we have velcro that's what a sheep's hair is it's velcro it sticks to everything well we have wolves what do they have claws what do we eat grass what do they eat us I mean Jesus would have made a lousy football coach Whitney don't get in shape we're gonna get slaughtered not necessarily so what does Jesus say so be as shrewd as snakes and as harmless as doves the problem as many Christians are as crooked as a snake and as dumb as a dove you ever seen a dove they're dumb I literally watched a dove try to get water out of my pool for about a half hour one day I couldn't figure it out it was just like it's like that's a dumb animal it is it almost fell into the pool and then flew off never got a drink he didn't tell us to be as dumb as doves right sometimes they release the amount of wedding and they fly into I mean all kinds of stuff because they're not real smart animals but they're a symbol of holiness you're to be holy but you're not to be stupid he said you need to be as shrewd as a snake how many shots does a snake get once it has no claws and it has no feet and it's the most exposed when it strikes so we got to calculate we got to think we got to strategize and a lot of Christians don't strategize they don't think look a great cause with a bad strategy is a waste of time money and energy you can have great intentions and still fail horribly being a Christian does not give us permission to be stupid and sometimes Christians do dumb things two of our campuses that we're going to start two of them one in banning and one at Palm Avenue you want to know where the bathroom is if you got to go pee in the middle of service while I'm preaching you want to know where you go behind the speaker that's not smart I mean the slogan should have been if you're holy you hold it can you imagine I'm up here preaching somebody comes up I'm is it 1 or 2 what is it 1 or 2 our visions to be real you're never coming back can you imagine I got a pee you got a walk-up everybody knows it's like confessional I gotta go cool does that come to our church we'll all know when you gotta go who does sense I mean sometimes we don't think we just don't think well we save money yeah but people are not gonna come here what are you doing and that's why it's gonna take literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to put in restrooms because if you don't have restrooms we say we love God but we hate you we can't have people peeing on trees we're gonna get arrested we'll be on the news that's funnier than that I'm not making this up where should we put the restroom right behind the pastor that's a bad idea listen we have a strategy at sandals that works our strategy is relational it is it's all about relationships it's all about people God does not need a building to exist in but people need a building to worship Him and connect with him you say oh I can worship oh my backyard yeah you can't alone and Jesus didn't call you to worship Him alone he called you to worship Him with his family and we're supposed to come together and if you're still worshiping Jesus alone in your backyard that means your faith is still all about you and what that means it's not about him we got to have a strategy we got to figure this out we got to make wise decisions one of the reasons we're going to do multi-site and we're gonna do campuses all over the place is to build this hundred part campus to double the seats at Hunter Park would literally require thirty million dollars and it would be miserable miserable it's almost miserable now right it is trying to get in here and get out I saw people this last weekend posting pictures stuck in traffic on bomb Rita listen what's smarter what's a better strategy building a four thousand seat auditorium so everybody can worship here spending thirty million dollars or doubling the size of the church for two million if you don't know the answers to million that's the answer that's the answer and we can build bathrooms where people can go whenever they want we don't even have to charge pee freely go whatever you want and people say oh I don't want to watch on that screen you know what you're gonna be watching in for thousands the auditorium the screen side that big I want to be but I'm not now you're laughing it that hurts that hurts so you know what Christians need a strategy why because we're sheep and we're fighting wolves do you know what that means we lose a lot so we better be smart and we better listen to the Shepherd cuz he's our only hope he's our only hope and we got to listen to him so we got to have a strategy our strategy is relational and it's intentional we want to bring people together and we can do this next let's just be honest there's a lack of resources it's hard to be a nonprofit organization today Americans are not as generous as we were at once we're not here's what breaks my heart America is becoming like the rest of the world not generous not generous it takes thousands of Christians today to do what hundreds of Christians could do a generation before because we lack resources the first resource and many of these churches is people they don't have people sandals has lots of people we had over 10,000 gathered last weekend with us matter of fact I think the last number I saw was 10,000 282 that's a lot of people it's a lot of people or Palm Avenue campus when they voted to become a sandals they were running in the high 30s total total that's all the people that they had this last week we had a vision night a vision night we had over 300 people show up okay 310 times the amount of people instantaneously that church has resources and listen to me the greatest resource in the church is not your money it's you it's you you are the capital that God uses to build his kingdom you are his investment is in you you matter he's gonna speak to you he's gonna gift you he's gonna empower you he's gonna bless you because you are the capital that got his resourcing and using God is not interested in your money he's interested in you people grow the church you're Peter you are and upon you God's gonna build his church his church so write this down the church must build into its members listen to me if you haven't taken the sandals workshops why it's not like we've charged it's free we're building into you we're investing into you I met I met a visitor to sandals Church two weeks ago two weeks ago out in the lobby 100 park you know what she said to me this is what she said she said I can't believe I just got to listen to that talk cuz that's what they call what I do they don't call it a sermon or a message that's what church people say she said I can't believe I got to listen to that talk listen to this for free let me translate that she says I'm not hearing this anywhere else in the world but I just heard life-changing information for free and I'm thankful she said I'm coming back do you know what a lost person understands she just was invested in she just was invested in she matters in the church she's being spoken to she's being blessed and a lot of us as Christians forget that we need to take the relational workshops so that we can grow so that the Saddles church can invest in us so we can invest in the church so the church has to build into its members next the church must raise up new leaders if we're gonna plant 500 churches how many leaders do we need thousands thousands of new leaders one of the reasons that the church is dying in America today is because the average pastor is over 70 years old we need to raise up a whole generation of new young pastors I go to conferences and they call me the young guy I'm like you missed it you miss if you're calling mid-40s young you're a thousand years old what are you doing you know what Jesus would have called me hey old guy he was in his early 30s hey old guy and he had everybody else younger than him because he knows that the gospel ends unless we extend it to the next generation we gotta raised up leaders and some of you God is calling to join robo's school people always ask me what is this role go flow go he'll go what is this it simply stands for real with ourselves God and others Rogo that's what it is that's all it means okay it's not code it's not a foreign language it's real ourselves got another's we're trying to teach you to be a leader that's real with themselves God and others because that's who God wants you to be and some of you need to pray about do I need to sacrifice some of my time some of my talents and some of my money so that I can submit myself to the schools so that God can raise me up and allow me to be a leader for his kingdom and for his church next the church must increase the spirit of generosity here's what I want you to pray about we want to raise between now and the end of the year a half a million extra dollars half a million if we can't do that we need to go back to the cross I was in conversations with one church member this week one one church member and we were talking about a gift of a million dollars from he and his wife one church member if ten thousand can't give 500 who are we what's happened and some of you guys say well it's not from my campus it's not about your campus it's about his kingdom my family will probably never go to church and banning but my eternal family will I don't know if my family will ever go to Palm and and the third campus is even a little further away and we'll find out about that in the next month or two if that's gonna happen but it's in that one's even more incredible man the day that it's just about your campus is the day we lost Jesus it can't just be about us the gospel is bigger than your campus it's bigger than you it's bigger than me it's bigger than us we're a part of the kingdom but we are not the kingdom and we got to serve Him listen this is our strategy to reach beyond our walls to reach beyond us to minister to people and you say well I just don't like it listen we have our Montclair pop-up site where they gather around a TV screen and God bless you god bless you for doing that and we hope that you guys will get a campus soon in the future they gather around a TV screen they set up and tear down to listen to the gospel on the TV screen that's how much people need Jesus man and if we can put a TV screen and that creates a church why wouldn't we do it why wouldn't we do it what do you think Paul what do you think Peter would have done wait a minute I can put a TV screen in my house where I watch a sports team that jokes all the time or I can put a TV in a facility where people are gonna come and be saved forever where should your dollars go the church must increase the spirit of generosity last point this is what I see that's wrong with the church today there's an overwhelming lack of urgency I don't know what happened I don't know how we lost it but we did at some point the church became like government we just move slow we just move slow and I know some of you work for government I love you and I praise I pray that you work hard and fast and you are diligent and you serve God by serving your government and I pray that you would work hard but let me tell you something I had an encounter with government last week where I almost lost my mind my wife and I we had to get passports for our kids and you both have to be there to get passports for your kids if they're under the age of 18 years old so we both had to be there listen to me it wasn't even my whole family just four of us four of us in a government office with two government workers and we're the only people in there for two workers for people needing service for two workers four people and only three of us need passports they don't even have to help me just help them now it's really two workers for three people I just stood there I couldn't believe it it was like watching paint flake and fall off a wall I was like god I know I am not exaggerating I started counting the number of times the one employee who was helping us yond I quit at like 20 I lost my mind I am in the government office in running shoes in running shorts and a running shirt preparing to run no one in this office is ever going to run in their entire life do you know that we paid extra money to expediate the process of the passports I kid you not this is how this is how the event ended they wrapped up our passports in a package rushed package and they gave it to my wife who had to hand carry the package to another government office called the post office she says we don't we don't do that here what help what what but that's how some of us act we show up to church I'll get there when I get there I need a cup of coffee I mean there's just no lack of urgency whatsoever in the church today Romans 13:11 says this this is all the more underlying the word urgent for you to know how late it is underline these words time is what running out we don't have forever to save souls wake up for our salvation is nearer now than when we what first believe listen to me Jesus says to Peter you're the rock and upon you I'm going to build my church but do you know what he said at the very end he said Peter I give you keys to the kingdom this is why everybody believes when you go to heaven there's a gate in st. peter's at it and it's because we don't understand at all what Jesus is saying Peters not at the gate of heaven you are you have the keys to the kingdom of God and Jesus has empowered you to unlock people from their spiritual prisons forever but if you don't give them the key they can't be saved what are we doing Church what are we doing let's tell people about Jesus we need to do this all the more now we need to do this we are running out of time Jesus gave us the keys to the kingdom he gave him the Peter a little rock and you say oh I'm so small that's why Jesus says your name means little pebble you're a little pebble and pebbles don't make any difference at all but listen to me not only did Jesus give you the keys to set people free from heaven but he gave you the keys to the power of heaven and with your little pebble when it's flung by the power and the Spirit of God it changes souls and redirects them for all eternity there is no church that I'm aware of that started with less than us no church I had less experience I had less money we had no sponsor we had no help nobody when we started we just had keys just keys and do you know what it's all we needed so all we need because with those keys we can drive anywhere we want because we're with Jesus I want you to pray for the next couple of weeks that God would move your spirit and galvanize this church to do this this is our strategy this is the way we're going to grow this is the way we're gonna reach we don't need to build buildings they're already built they just need to be redesigned and have bathrooms in the right place let's pray Heavenly Father God thank you so much for today lord I pray that you would bless every one of us with a spirit of conviction God so we could launch these next three campuses and God I pray that you would stir in our hearts what each and every one of us need to give including Tammy and I over and above what we're already giving because time is running out help us to do this with your help give us the keys we pray in Jesus name Amen [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Sandals Church

Views: 8,768

Rating: 4.8911567 out of 5

Keywords: sandals church, pastor matt brown, what is God's purpose for you, what is our purpose, purpose, God's purpose, Our purpose, Riverside, CA, moreno valley, redlands, redlands downtown, inland empire, montclair

Id: RyaKpkdg8C4

Length: 49min 31sec (2971 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2017