How To Live For Christ In A Culture That Doesn't | Sandals Church

my name is jeff and i'm the pastor of our sandals church online community whether this is your first time or you are a weekly attender we are so glad that you're here if you're new please let us know in the comments or you can go to sandalschurch.com next and we would love to connect with you friends there is so much happening in our world right now in our nation and i'm sure even possibly in your own home i want to read to you a passage from matthew 9 where jesus reminds us who we are supposed to be blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of god i want us to remember that god has called you us those who are followers of jesus children of god to be peacemakers that could be in your home in your school on your team in your church in your country in this nation let me pray for you and let me pray for our time today father thank you so much for this moment right here and right now thank you that we are all gathered together in this place thank you for the opportunity for us to to sing to you to hear a message and then to hopefully go out and change our world father i just want to thank you lord for the opportunity to be peace makers that is what you've called us to be and some of these individuals listening and watching today need peace in their lives i pray that i pray that our spirits our hearts our minds our ears would be ready to hear and receive whatever it is that you would have us to receive and hear today i pray this in jesus name amen now let's sing to the lord together hey church we're going to worship our great and mighty god today and wherever you're at we want you to join in with us so let's lift our voice and sing to him when all i see when all i see is and as i walk through the shad your love surrounds me [Music] through the battle belongs to [Music] for jesus [Applause] [Music] you see [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] fortress [Music] nothing come on [Music] i [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh oh [Music] the battle belongs to the lord whatever battle you're going through it belongs to god thanks so much for singing with us today if you have young kids we have a sandals church kids service which my kids absolutely love that's just for them parents right now you can help your kids find this by going to kids.santalschurch.tv and have them enjoy that service just for them we are in our second part of our new series when in rome which is all about following christ in a culture that doesn't make sure you download our sandals church app so that you can be going through our we all need god bible reading plan that goes right along with our series when in rome there is no one else i would rather have bringing the message today than our very own lead pastor matt brown [Music] [Music] [Music] hey sandals church welcome to 2021 man feels like a lot like 20 20. i'm praying for you guys i want to encourage you man get off the news get in the word of god and join us for this study this 24-week study when in rome and the whole idea about that this series is when in rome right the saying is when in rome act like a roman and the problem is as christians this letter is written to people who live in rome and they are called not to live like romans but they are called to live like christians and so for 24 weeks i'm going to unpack for you from the book of romans how to live for christ in a culture that doesn't it doesn't matter what your neighbor does what your neighbor thinks what your boss does what your boss thinks what matters is what god wants you to do and what he thinks about your life and so the apostle paul writes this letter to the church at rome and he says first i thank my god through jesus christ for all of you because of your faith is being proclaimed in all of the world for my god is a witness whom i serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son that without ceasing i always mention you in my prayers asking that that somehow by god's will i may know at last i may now at last succeed in coming to you the apostle paul says for i long to see you that i may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you man and this is the beautiful thing about community he says that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith both yours and mine he says i do not want you to be unaware brothers that i have often intended to come to you but thus far i have been prevented in order that i may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the gentiles the apostle paul says i am under an obligation both to the greeks and to the barbarians both to the wise and amens analyst church to the foolish thank god he cared about the foolish because that's how i got in he said so i am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in rome man here's my prayer for you through this series that the gospel that is the good news of jesus christ would reach your heart would change your life would lift you out of this chaos and usher you in to god's peace can i just pray for you right now i know many of you are are troubled many of you are anxious many of you are worried and i just want to pray god's peace upon you and i want to talk today about how to live for christ in a culture that doesn't because god has a word for you today father i pray for everybody listening god i pray for my own soul my own conscience god i pray in the midst of my own anxiety and my own worry god i pray for my eyes as they they look at a country in a world that is so chaotic god i pray that you bring your peace upon us today and that you direct us just like you directed the church who lived in a chaotic roman culture 2000 years ago where transitions of power god we're never easy but often brutal and we pray lord jesus that your peace that comforted them would comfort us today direct us and lead us we pray in jesus name a men so how do you how do you live for christ in a culture that doesn't that's one of the things that you're going to need to do as a christian is you're going to quit you're going to need to quit looking to the world to guide you you know there was a season and there was a time in our country where cultural values were judeo-christian values that's shifting that's changing you can no longer just let your your children listen to their teacher you can no longer just listen to the government officials but what you have to do is you have to challenge your children you have to challenge yourself i'm called to be different i'm not called to be like them i'm not called to act like them i'm not called to think like them i'm called by jesus to be different so how do i live for christ in a culture that doesn't number one always look for the good that god is doing always look for the good here's the problem in our culture there's no good news anymore you know why because it's all bad news so many of you every single time you're like a drug addict and the news media the news media is your source right and they just give you that drug every time and every time you know you take it you're gonna feel terrible you're gonna feel awful you're gonna feel anxious but you're addicted stop looking to the world for good news stop looking for the world for good news because all they're going to show you is whatever idiot whatever whatever crazy person is doing the weirdest thing today the weirdest thing tomorrow and the weirdest thing next year the media pays no attention to you and to me going about our lives just living our lives doing our business trying to figure out how to how to survive 2020 and now 2021 they don't care for you they care for ratings stop listening to the news and start listening to the good news what is it that god is doing how is it that god is working what is it that's happening where is god at work in your life where is god at work in your church's life where is god at work in the world listen to what paul says in romans 1 8 he says first i want you to circle that print out your notes circle that first paul says i thank my god i thank my god through jesus christ for all of you you know what paul's saying he says i thank god for the not crazy people i thank god for the reasonable people i thank god for the born-again people who act born again you see rome was chaotic many of you for the first time in your life you're like oh my gosh because we've taken for granted the transitions of power are easy let me tell you how it went in rome okay if donald trump was a roman emperor guess what would happen to him in his defeat he and claudia and all of their family members his sons and everybody who worked for him would be executed executed and this happened time after time after time and it happened over and over again the loser lost everything didn't matter what you did didn't matter what you've done doesn't matter how brave you were man rome assassinated julius caesar their greatest emperor he was an incredible leader did amazing things he was stabbed by his own friends in the back and by who shakespeare tells us right both brutus and cassius they too were honorable men and yet stabbed him in the back so the apostle paul is writing to the mecca of the cultural world at this time and things are chaotic and oftentimes just like today you know what the roman empire loved to do instead of taking responsibility for their own ineptness they looked constantly for someone to blame their favorite target oftentimes was the jews because that's what we love to do right we love to blame somebody who's a different color than us we love to blame somebody who's a different religion than us we love to blame somebody that's a different uh political party than us we need a scapegoat and so they constantly did this they drew they drove out all the jews and all the jews were were driven out by the emperor claudius and then they came back and guess what the church had changed because now there's gentiles in the church he says first i thank my god through jesus christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in the world you know what's being proclaimed in the world more people are watching church now than ever more people are turning to god now than ever more people are searching more people are looking i i just literally made a post on my instagram this week explaining what the word amen means amen a simple word not a controversial word and people are flocking to that because they're hungry for truth you see out of controversy out of difficulty god can lead people to christ and some of you guys you're like me you're drawn too easily into the negative right my blood type o negative you know why because i'm always negative my whole family got coveted i kept testing you know for for covet i'm negative negative negative just like my just like me and i've got to work on being positive let me say this to you a critical spirit is not the holy spirit a negative spirit is not the holy spirit what is god doing and if god's doing nothing in your life then that's a you problem that's a you problem look at yourself finally brothers paul says whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever's lovely whatever is commendable if there's anything of excellence if there's anything worthy of praise think about these things think about these things it's difficult right it's hard what's good in your life like nothing you sound like a teenager nothing nothing's going right man my family got coveted over the break my poor son you know he's 17 he turned 18. his christmas was different his new years was different he missed his whole school break and his birthday when he turned 18 didn't go the way that he wanted and i watched him struggle i watched him wrestle and i just kept gently pushing him back because i understand times are tough and if and if you're a part of our youth ministries i get it times are tough and things feel overwhelming but i kept asking him what went right today what was good about today and i pressed him and pressed him and pressed him you see his birthday was a difficult day but the next day he said you know dad i think it turned out to be one of my favorite birthdays listen to these words it wasn't what i thought i wanted but it turned out to be amazing let me ask you what is good in your life what's good what's good you know when kovet finally hit our house i'm like okay this is terrible this is a little scary but you know what thank god we finally got it we can move on we can move on what's good what's good my wife lost all taste and smell right so we're driving in the car i took a little liberty she can't smell she's like i can still hear i'll let your mind figure out what happened there but let me tell you something what's good what's good in your life what is god how has god blessed you some of you have missed the blessing of god in 2020 the blessing were the things he took away the things you would never have given up on your own and that's going to turn out to be the greatest blessing you've ever experienced focus on the good what does the media do what does hollywood do all they do is circle in focus on and exaggerate the bad the bad what is good what is good this week was terrible it was awful our nation's capital was invaded turns out conservatives have crazies too go figure i've been telling you guys that for a long time there are nuts on both sides and we don't always know which sides the nuts are on anyways they just like to show up and watch things burn what's the good news here's the good news congress did their job i've never been more proud of mike pence in the most difficult situation a politician could ever be in it's good news it's difficult to lead when your own side is being ridiculous it's difficult it's challenging look for the good news you're still here i'm still here god has placed us here for a reason the apostle paul says first of all i thank god for you and i just want to stop because some of you you can't think of anything positive you're just completely overwhelmed and you have bought and just been just just sold yourself out to to the news to the news conglomeration left or right they don't really care about you they care about ratings you know what god cares about you and i just want to say for those of you with sandals church who gave who served who've hung in there with us at sandals church this year i want you to know that i thank god for you one of the positive things in my life is you and you can't even see that about yourself but i thank god for you i thank god for you know so many of you man you've struggled financially you've struggled in your marriage you've struggled you know with this whole political process and all of this chaos i thank god for so many of you that continue to remember the church continue to remember why we're really here so how do i how do i live for for christ in a culture that doesn't i look for the good what is god doing in my life and if you can't see it would you stop today and pray and say god would you show me would you show me the good that you're doing would you show me number two i've got to surround myself with people who encourage my faith who are the people that are encouraging you to be faithful i don't know about you but i got a lot of people in my life that encourage me to make posts i got a lot of people in my life that encourage me to to make a stand what they mean by that is a stand that they agree with there's a lot of pressure in our world to be politically woke to be politically you know active i mean you've got to very very quickly you know your own personal post that's supposed to be about birthday cakes and family vacations and great pictures with your friends all of a sudden you know you're you're your own personal cnn or fox news who are the people that encourage you in your faith hey i'm praying for you hey i want to challenge you this is a time when we have to stop and so many of you you're being more led by your political persuasion than you are your personal savior who are the people in your life that aren't telling you you need to go to washington who are the people in your life that are saying have you gotten on your knees have you prayed about this have you prayed about this because let me tell you what i've learned about me let me share something a little bit about your pastor my initial emotional reaction is almost never the right reaction how do i process this how do i feel about this listen what paul says in romans 1 9-12 he says for god is my witness whom i serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son that without ceasing he says i mention you always in my prayers who are those people in your life that pray for you on good days that pray for you on bad days that pray for you on your worst day who's the apostle paul in your life that's praying for you look we've voted we've marched we've protested we live in a broken world we've done a lot of physical things to bring change the apostle paul is coming to rome to bring spiritual change he says i pray for you without ceasing i mention you always in my prayers asking that somehow by god's will i may now at last succeed in coming to you he says i want to see you i want to meet you one of the things that i i get to do is your pastor and i'm so grateful that as a church you care about missions you care about the world and i get to go around the world and i get to meet christians people all over the world who love jesus i love to see what god is doing in other cultures i love to see what god is doing in other nations i love to see the same jesus that i love minister in the hearts of a person that looks nothing like me it's an incredible thing he says i pray that somehow by god's will i may now at last succeed in coming to you he says listen to this for i long to see you i want you to read between the lines here paul's a little disappointed that he has to send the letter do you know the apostle paul wished he could have done sat down with the church at rome and all the churches at rome and talked to him personally thank god the apostle paul was disappointed you know why because if he did that we don't have a letter if the apostle paul doesn't go through disappointment god never blesses the church for 2 000 years with his letter sometimes it's the disappointment that really brings us together he says for i long to see you i long to see you we need to think about man we've had church taken away from us you know whether you agree with it or you don't agree with it we haven't been able to to meet together we haven't been able to hug with each other i ca i can't wait to gather again the apostle paul says i long to see you that i may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you you know what spiritual community does it strengthens you do you know what isolation and the media does it destroys you it destroys you i don't know about you but i looked at some of the pictures of the people that stormed our capital i was like i don't know that these people are like relationally you know in tune one guy looked like chewbacca i don't know if you saw him and i'm just like these people you know who who are the people that speak truth into their lives i mean one guy one guy had like a buffalo head on his head i was like what what's going on here who's the person that says you know what you're you're a little out here you've got you've gotten a little politically crazy here to the laughter to the right he says that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith both yours and mine who's that person in your life that's like you know what the way you just spoke to your child i mean you just destroyed him it's okay to correct him but you can't destroy him who's that person in in your life that says you know what i don't think that you speak to your wife in a way that's honoring who's that person in your life that says you know what you're incredibly critical and negative about your husband who's that person in your life that says there's more to life than politics there's this thing called eternal life i don't know if you're aware of this but as christians we've bet everything that there's something better that's coming there's something after all this who's that person in in your life that builds you up that encourages you and some of you right now you're saying i don't have any of those people and let me tell you something you have more than you think one of my favorite books in the bible is the book of hebrews maybe one day we'll do we'll do a series on hebrews but one of my favorite chapters is chapter 11 and it's called the chapter of the faithful and it talks about people that went through more than you and i could ever imagine and they did it for god they were persecuted they were killed they were murdered maimed in prison starved they went through all of these horrible things and do you know why the book of hebrews says so that we could have an example we are never alone we have god above and we have the church around us the church from millennia people that love us and care for us and then hebrews 12 1 after it lists all these people who went through all this heartache it says therefore since we are surrounded listen to me you're not isolated you're surrounded as a believer by so great a cloud of witnesses you ever been in the clouds you ever been in the fog one of the things i absolutely hate is when i'm landing in an aircraft and i cannot see the ground i can't stand it i hate flying and landing in fog i hate flying and landing in clouds it's bumpy it's scary i don't like it right like if i were going to crash i want to see it coming you know because i have issues pray for me it says there's a cloud all around us here's what hebrews 12 1 is saying you should never think you're alone because you're constantly surrounded in every direction that you turn every way that you look there's a believer who's been an example for you and the book of revelation says they're praying for us in heaven you're never alone he says let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run the race let us run with endurance the race that god has set before us some of you say pastor matt you should be more political that's not my race now i'm grateful for people who run i'm grateful for people who serve man i i think you're a little crazy if you actually want to make a difference cause i think it's really hard and i'm thankful for that my job is not to get to the white house or help somebody get in the white house my job is to get you in heaven and that's harder than you think because you're hard-headed and so many of you you're worried about everybody else but god's worried about you are you gonna make it therefore since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us what's the sin that's entangling you for some of you it's fear you look at what's happening in dc and you say that's everyone that's not everyone you look at what's happening on the news that's not everywhere what is it that you're looking at what is it that you're seeing turn your attention to people who know god and know you to people who love god and love you maybe 2021's the year where you quit attending church and you say you don't want to be a part of the church some of you need to join a small group some of you need to start a small group you need to open up your home you know what the book of romans is the book of romans is a letter written to many house churches all throughout the roman empire some of them small some of them large depending upon the size of the home many of you you come home every day and you say this is the lord's house but you've never used it for the lord maybe this is the year okay we're more and more people are going to get vaccinated many of us have already gotten sick what that means is we're we're right around the corner from getting healthy that's what it means so much of our struggle so much of our isolation so much of our separation it's almost in the rearview mirror it's right there maybe this is the year where you realize it is not good for me to be alone that's why god said it in the first chapter of the bible it's not good for you to be alone the book of proverbs says he who isolates himself seeks his own desires many of us are at our worst when we're on our own trapped in our thoughts trapped in our emotions coming up with our own sense of reality maybe this is the year where you need to surround yourself with people who love you so much that they don't tell you what you want to hear but they tell you what god knows you need to hear you and i need to hear it's how to live for christ in a culture that doesn't number three stay biblically solid but personally flexible personally flexible you need to know that i i intend to be biblically solid until the day that i die i will never compromise never compromise my understanding of the word of god but you know what i'm going to do everything i can to remain culturally relevant to reach as many people as i can for christ the apostle paul says this in romans 1 13-14 he says i do not want you to be unaware he says i want you to know listen i want you to know brothers that i have often intended to come to you but thus far i've been prevented he said i wanted to come i've tried to come i tried to get there it just didn't work right it's like 20 20 over and over again you got plans you know you're gonna get married you're gonna have a birthday party you're gonna go on a vacation nope nope nope nope no but the apostle paul thank god stays biblically solid but personally flexible he said i wanted to come to you in order that i may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the gentiles he said i want to come but i've been prevented paul doesn't tell us what prevented him was it god was it the devil was it the roman government was it some form of for some form of racism against jews what was it he had been prevented from coming to rome we know that he faced racism because jews had been kicked out of rome he doesn't let us know he just said i didn't get to do what i wanted to do but listen to this he says i am under obligation both to greeks and to barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish paul says i'm committed to all of you all of you knuckleheads i'm committed to you republicans you democrats i'm committed to if you're black i'm committed to if you're white the apostle paul says a word here that's sneaky and we miss out on it because there's 2 000 years of relevance between us and him and the word is barbarians this is the worst people the worst of the worst the absolute bottom of the barrel right nowadays we'd call them you know germans or or or gauls or they were the northern empire man these individuals were difficult and and they literally were called barbarians because the language that they spoke was just literally like like a barbar that's that's what the greeks said they can't even speak they're like animals disgusting and gross violent and rome never would subdue them but eventually would be subdued by them these are the same individuals that eventually became vikings and and ravaged ireland and scotland and england and france the apostle paul says i even care about those guys do you know why that is because the lord jesus christ said that we must love our enemies as ourselves and the apostle paul took that seriously he was grounded biblically but he was flexible personally i mean so many of you guys man if things don't go your way you lose your minds tammy and i when we had kovid man we'd been in the house it seemed like a thousand years anybody that's gone through that it's just horrible it's just awful you're stuck in your house you're isolated you can't go anywhere and so finally about 14 days later i said we need to go out we need to go out together and you know the doctor said we're no longer contagious and we can go out and it didn't go the way that we wanted because when we went out to dinner tammy looked at me and she said i just lost my taste and smell we went got pizza and we went to the beach our favorite place and and she's just like oh my gosh can't even taste it and so we were getting ready to pull out the parking lot and i got to be honest with you oh i was zoning a little bit it was my first day out you ever not driven a car in a while it's like a weird like you forget everything what is this and so we were we were at a light and i needed to make a left-hand turn and i was a little late i was a little slow and the person behind me like i i don't know if you're a hunker i'm n i don't like to honk because i live in the empire i know some of your orange county now that are listening but i live in the hill empire and if you honk you might die out here so you just got you got to be careful like if you're if you're going to commit you got to commit right like you know but you know hey i don't want to be shot but in orange county man you know we were in uh around newport bay in newport beach and you know it's a little different there and so this woman behind us this blonde hair just everything that you would think about you know orange county she just and how about lost my mind and i just waved and i said you know i'm sorry and she gave me double birds which means i'm number one twice you know and it's like good god i i just delayed your day seven seconds seven seconds and she looked at me like i needed to die seven seconds i just had to get out of her way we all have to just chill out a little bit when things don't go our way james 4 13-15 says this come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such-and-such town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit james says be very careful about your plans he says you do not know what tomorrow will bring amen i don't know what it'll bring i didn't know what yesterday would bring i didn't know what the day before would bring i didn't know every single day for for two weeks with covet i would wake up in the morning and i would go i would literally literally like do a self-check i'm still breathing i would touch myself every single day because i had no idea how i was going to feel that day he says you don't know what tomorrow will bring and some of you are so upset so upset oh my gosh the democrats took it you don't know we don't know nobody knows we don't know what tomorrow will bring i mean we don't know and so many of you are so upset about what trump's gonna do or or what you think and you've got this vision into the future you don't know what you're gonna do tomorrow much less what someone else is going to do he says you don't know what tomorrow will bring this is a little insulting here but sometimes scripture's got to slap you around a little bit to wake you up what is your life what is your life james says for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then it vanishes you know why we're over we're all upset we all have such grandiose senses of self-importance he said instead as a christian you ought to say if the lord wills we will live and do this or that stay biblically grounded stay biblically solid but remain personally flexible you can't even control your life i couldn't control how my body would respond to covet i couldn't control how my wife's body can you know uh responded to covet or my daughter or my son i had no control over any of that and do you know why that is my life is in god's hands whether i want it or not there's so much i can't control what you need to do is just say okay lord if it's your will i'm going to go do this and i'm going to go do that and so if it's the lord's will maybe next year you'll get a vacation and if not it's okay you've got to remain personally flexible because i got news for you god cares a whole lot more about our obedience than he does our preference it's funny i got a little frustrated with god on christmas eve and i'm just gonna confess it hadn't rained in california for like six months six months it hadn't rained like if you're not from california it's like it never rains here like we live in the desert like it it just it just doesn't rain and on christmas eve we booked this really cool outdoor video it's going to be awesome it rained for 90 minutes 90 minutes in a six month span 90 minutes and like blew our whole outdoor venue away we had to send everybody home and i was like i don't know about you but i was like lord come on lord god cares more about my obedience than my preference there are more important things than a christmas eve service you know what's more important than that jesus the safety of our people i mean there's just some things you got to learn to roll like if you haven't become flexible in 2020 i don't know how you're going to do in 2021 like you got to learn to roll last point how to live for jesus in a culture that doesn't is you got to get excited you got to get excited about learning more about god's good news do you know what that is the good news it's the gospel it's good news romans 1 15 and we're going to stop here it's just so i'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in rome you know what motivated paul you know what got paul up in the morning it wasn't his favorite sports team it wasn't you know the roman daily times who got elected who was caesar who became a senator how did the senator race go in this province or that province you know what got the apostle paul up in the morning knowing that he had the best news in the world the only truly good and pure news and here's why you need to read romans here's what you need to understand romans will teach you who the real god is who the real god is what your real problem is and what the only real solution is and that's jesus christ and that's the good news it's the good news and so many of you are excited about everything but the one true source of good news i know many of you are confounded and upset by this week's events as i was processing what happened in washington what trump did what i thought he should have done what he didn't do he was reminded of matthew 26 when judas brought the police to arrest jesus peter picked up a sword and cut off says the high priest servant's ear listen to me if you're a christian and jesus said those who live by the sword die by the sword our country is addicted to the sword to the left to the right we are constantly offended by what someone else says or does the left and the right and i realize this is controversial but this is truth the left and the right are outraged because they feel like they've been unjustly treated our only hope is jesus who told peter put down the sword put down the sword and then he healed the high priesteer and i want to challenge you put down the sword what is jesus teaching us there's something more important than your own personal sense of injustice it's the cross and jesus told peter to put down the knife and jesus went to the cross to die for you and he died in an unjust court in an unjust way under an unjust government called rome and he did all of that to justify you for the day that you'll stand before jesus put your sword down whether you lean to the left or you lean to the right and remind yourselves that what saved rome was never a politician his name was jesus and the only thing that can save america is if we put down our swords on the left and the right and we remember what the good news is and we remember how to share it with our family and our friends and some of you you say well i'll put my sword down when they put down theirs the text never tells us that those who arrested jesus put down their swords jesus looked at peter and he said you put down yours put it down let's lower the volume on our outrage let's put it down and let's remember as christians why we're here we're here to share the good news and that good news has nothing nothing to do with an elephant or a donkey but everything to do with the lamb i want to encourage you put down your sword and say god excite me again about the good news remind me again why the church is the hope of the world and you want to know what's wrong with the church today it's too political on the left and the right we've got to be about jesus and we've got to point people to the truth let me pray for you heavenly father in the powerful mighty name of jesus i pray right now that your holy spirit would identify the sword in every listener's hand i pray you point it out and you command them right now in the name of jesus to lower it and then god i pray that you turn their attention away from bad news jaded news fake news and you turn their attention to the only good news there is and help us as christians to be a church and to bring salvation not to rome but to a culture to a country to a world that does not know your son jesus christ we pray this in his name and we pray that our behavior and our attitudes would honor his sacrifice amen man what a great message that i think we all need to hear right now pastor matt said that maybe this is the year you discover that it is not good for you to be alone you already discovered that in 2020 when the christian church started it began by establishing house churches they actually gathered in their homes to have church and then this is actually how their faith grew and their church grew because they were in community and sharing life together i want you to know that we still believe that for many of you having church in your home might be what god is calling you to do if that's you we would love for you to start a sandals church anywhere we are launching four more this month around the us and in the uk if you would like to become a sandals church right where you are a stainless church anywhere then go to sandalchurch.com anywhere this will be the catalyst for your faith this year by being in community and by being the church we want you to know that santa's church ended 2020 strong we reached more people than ever before with our online christmas eve service we had over 10 000 individuals and families impacted by the hope and the light of jesus on christmas eve that was possible because of your giving and you're supporting the amazing work that god has entrusted all of us to do thank you so much for giving and thank you for continuing to give if you would like to support this life-changing mission you can give on our sandals church app or you can go to give.sc as we take time now to sing again i hope that you will sing with us and allow god to help guide you with whatever next steps that you need to take today this song is all about the good news remembering what jesus did on the cross and what he accomplished through the grave so i want you to just lift your voices with ours and let's worship him in this moment [Music] he carried a cross of shame and climbed up calvary all over they had victory and they drove those rusty nails into your hands and feet [Music] but death could not hold you down the grave is [Music] with healing in yours [Music] my jesus you are [Music] upon a throne [Music] declaring your victory to jesus [Music] is [Applause] [Music] to oh [Music] come oh [Music] the grave has been denied and all [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus jesus reigns that's good news i hope that brings comfort and joy to your heart in the middle of so much chaos i read something this week and it feels so timely it said jesus offers joy in this life and perfection in the next and sometimes i think we struggle so deeply because we want perfection now and yet jesus said no that's what's to come so here's what he's asking us to do he's asking us to persevere right now through the imperfections of life and that feels so incredibly challenging that feels so hard and sometimes overwhelming impossible even but he gives us he gives us the key on how to do it he says run this race with endurance and this is what he says fix your eyes fasten your gaze on jesus turn your eyes upon jesus each of us is battling our own thing each of us know what struggle is in front of us or what valley we're in and yet jesus right now wherever you are he's telling you i know all about that i know how hard it is i know how much you're struggling it's far from perfect where you are but fix your eyes on me and i can give you joy right now so i want to give you a moment right now just you and jesus whatever that thing is that's coming to mind whatever struggle situation relationship maybe it's a matter of healing i want you to put that before him i want you to block everything else out and as i sing these words over you i just want you to fix your eyes i want you to turn your eyes upon jesus turn your eyes upon jesus look for in his wonderful faith [Music] his glory and grace just look to jesus turn your eyes upon jesus [Music] look in his wonderful face and the things of this earth [Music] his glory and grace [Music] in his glory and grace this is holy this [Music] is [Music] this is holy this is you are holy you are with me upon you now lord i wait upon you now let your presence feel me now [Music] this is [Applause] [Music] this is you are holding me [Music] [Applause] [Music] god [Music] [Music] upon you now lord [Music] let your presence me now [Music] as i wait upon you now [Music] i just want to encourage you wherever you're at that god is greater than anything that we can go through as we worship today lift up your hands and let him have his way [Music] you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is [Music] so we pour out our praise [Music] so we pour out our praise to you [Music] you [Music] that is [Music] so [Music] is [Music] let's proclaim this right now all [Music] our hearts will cry these bones will sing [Music] our hearts will cry these bones [Music] these [Music] [Applause] is [Music] it's your bread [Music] [Music] great [Music] great great is the lord thank you so much for singing with us and thank you so much for being here my prayer is that you not just be watchers of what you experienced today but you would live that out that you would take what you learned today what you saw today what you sung today and you would live that out this week that you would live out christ in a culture that doesn't we'll see you next week

Channel: Sandals Church

Views: 7,591

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Id: deKOoicg6c8

Length: 69min 4sec (4144 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 09 2021