Morgan Teruel: Hey. Thanks so much for listening to Sandals Church. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We hope you enjoy this message.
Claude Hickman: Let me tell you the biggest dangers to your faith are the influences in your life that you choose, and the influences that you allow. Those voices, in the orbit of your life go from out there to in here to in here very quickly. You know, I just realized a few years ago my wife and I have been married almost 25 years, and I just realized we had very different inner monologues. We had very different self talk. We were talking about something that we were gonna go teach together or something that she was kinda nervous.
And she said, you know, it's just it's all those voices that you have in your head that say you're not good enough, you're not cool, don't even try, you can't do it. And I was I looked at her like, what? You know, like, how do you get anything done? That's the voice in your head? She's like, yeah.
That's the voice that everybody said. I was like, no. It's not. She's like, what's what's the voice in your head sound like? And then I'm like, well, I don't wanna tell you because she's like, now you gotta tell me.
And I'm like, you're gonna think I'm a psychopath. And I said, when I wake up this is crazy to say, but when I wake up, the voice in my head is like you know when you walk into a stadium and the applause is so loud, it sounds like Niagara Falls? That's the voice I hear. She's like, you're a psychopath. I was like, I know.
But I you know, really, it was just because, man, I had voices in my life that were healthy, that were encouraging, my through my parents, through other godly men and women. And those voices made their way into my heart and told me, even if I fail, it's better to try. They told me I could do things. I could serve God. You know, there's a book called emotionally healthy spirituality, and the author tells her this incredible story about a woman who was born blind.
And now she's in her twenties and her hands were also curled up so she had people that took care of her, but she got a new doctor. And, as they brought her in, the doctor said, you know what? I'm I've studied kinda her her diagnosis and all those things, and I think I can cure her hands. And they said, are you serious? And he said, yeah.
But you're gonna have to leave her here at the hospital. So they left her with this doctor, and the doctor told the nurses, I want you to bring her food into her room, and I want you to put it in front of her, but don't feed her. And the nurses said, are you are you serious? Can we do that? And he's like, trust me.
And hour after hour, she could smell the food. She would call out to the nurses, but nobody went to help her. And They're like, are you sure we can do this? And he's like, trust me. And finally, after hours of her waiting and getting hungry, you know what happened?
She began to reach out. And and fingers that had been curled for decades began to uncurl. She scooped food to her mouth, and soon she was feeding herself. And you know what? It wasn't a miracle.
She had just had someone do everything for her her whole life, and it had stunted her growth. It had stunted her ability. And you know what? Even better about that story is she went on to mold clay. She didn't just discover her hands.
She discovered a purpose, and she became known as the blind artist of Canterbury. Something beautiful came out of her that was going undone because everything had been done for her. And let me tell you what my fear is. My fear is as you come to church, you call it attending church. And my fear is is in the interest of making it easy and making it, you know, for for guests if you're a new visitor.
We we try to make things easy for you but my fear is that we've done everything for you for so long that it stunted your growth. And we've unintentionally communicated that you can't. And God wants to say to you, you can. You know, Howard Hendricks said, most believers die, with an unsung song in their heart. Listen, discipleship is the voice in your life that says you can.
That says God wants to equip you. He wants to use you. That ministry is not just for the professionals on the stage, it's for normal people like you. And and right now we're missing you. There there's an unwritten part in this story that you're meant to play.
You need a new voice. That's what I'm saying. You need a new voice in your life. You need the voice of Jesus that says, follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.
You need the voice of God that says, come with me and we'll make disciples of all nations. You need the voice of a discipler, someone that encourages you that you can and don't settle. We're gonna look at a passage in the book of Hebrews, and the book of Hebrews is one of those epistles that wasn't written to a specific church. It's kind of an open letter to the Hebrews, the the Christians who follow Jesus, who were Jewish, but they had settled in their growth. Something had been stunted about their growth.
And the author is an unknown voice, but it's cheering them on, saying press on. This is what it says in Hebrews 5. For though by this time, he says, you ought to be teachers. You know, the goal of this series is called multiply because the goal is this that is that you would multiply spiritually, that you would become teachers, that you would disciple the next generation. And he's saying the goal by this time, you ought to be teachers, but you can't.
He says you need someone to teach you again. And really, that's the whole series in a nutshell. Is that we're not only, you know, needing to disciple others behind us, but before we do that, we need someone to disciple us. We need someone to teach us again. The basics, he said.
Basic principles, the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. Says for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he's a child. But solid food is for the mature. That's where we're going.
For those who have their own powers of discernment trained by constant practice. He's saying, man, you need someone to disciple you again. You need someone to teach you, train you. The goal of the church is not just to repair your life, but it's to prepare your life for ministry. And something is stunted in us.
He says, you're like a child. You're not where you ought to be. You so he says, you need someone to teach you the basic principles again. In other words, you need someone to disciple you. In the Bible, the best picture we have of that is this relationship between Paul and Timothy.
So in Christian circles, you might hear someone say, man, that that person is my Paul. He's he's my spiritual leader. Or you might say, man, this that that person is my Timothy who I'm discipling. I'm trying I remember as a young adult when I realized I need a Paul in my life. I need someone to disciple me.
Now here's a beautiful truth. You can write this down. I get to choose. I get to choose who leads my life spiritually. Isn't that great?
You know, my son, Hudson, this last year in middle school, their, PE class made them run a mile every single week. I loved it. You know, as a parent, you're like, yes, lord. You know? But it stressed him out because, the first you know, at first, they had to run it in 12 minutes, then they had to run it in 11 minutes.
And, you know, by the end of the spring, they had to run it in 10 minutes. And he was starting to get stressed because Hickmans are not we don't got long legs, you know, and all that stuff. And so he was hustling, you know, to do it in 10 minutes, but he would get so stressed about it. I'd be like, you know what? You can do it.
Like, you you meant it's just a mental thing. Let's go out and practice. So we went out. I started to run with him. I ran one lap, and dad's like, you know, I'm more of a timekeeper.
Okay? Dad's gonna pull up a lawn chair and a ice pack, and I'll just I'll do this, but you can do it. He came home one Friday, though, and he and I'm like, did you do it? He's like, I did it. He goes, dad, I figured out the secret to doing it.
And I was like, oh, lord. Not drugs. Not drugs. Not drugs. You know?
He's he's like, no, dad. I follow Mindy. And I said, is she cute? And he's like, oh, no, dad. She's she's fast.
Okay? She's built like Roadrunner. She can run it every time. Even when she was sick, she did it in 10 minutes. He goes, I I just keep her in front of me, and I don't let her get away.
Listen. That's what you need in your your spiritual life. And every most races have what are called pacesetters who run with a balloon. And if you wanna finish in a certain time, you just don't let them get away. I want you to write this down.
Number 1, I must follow somebody who runs ahead of me spiritually. I must follow somebody who runs ahead of me spiritually. Average players on great teams wear rings. So you need to get a good team and you need to get a good coach. I wanna tell you after, like, decades of thinking about discipleship and trying to make disciples, I wanna give you 5 or 6 qualities I think you should look for in a spiritual leader.
And the first one should be obvious, but it's this, are they following Jesus? That's the first one. Now I know there's somebody that's, you know, here today, and they're going, well, Claude, I just followed Jesus. Okay. I don't think we should follow people.
We need to follow Jesus. And I get that, but you know what? That's not what the New Testament says. In fact, the New Testament tells us over and over that it's okay. It's perfectly appropriate to follow people, even flawed people, who are trying to follow Jesus.
Paul says this multiple times. Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. Philippians 3, he says, pattern your life after mine. Is he a perfect person? No.
But he says, learn learn from me. And he says this, learn from those who follow our example. In other words, he's saying, the carbon copy is okay. The second generation is okay to follow. Follow people who are following hard after Jesus.
The reason I say the biggest danger to your faith are the people you know, the influences you choose and the influences you allow is because most of the influences in your life are ins influences you just allow. You're already following people right now. You are already being discipled by many people right now. You just don't realize how many hours you spend listening to Joe Rogan, how many hours you spend getting discipled by Taylor Swift and Fox News and TikTok. They're already mentoring you right now, but you need to choose to follow people who follow Jesus.
Another thing I look for is do they have a track record? First Thessalonians 1 says this, you know what kind of men we proved to be among you. In other words, that takes time. We proved our character among you. Give people time.
Look for people who've walked with God for years. But listen to what Paul says. We proved our life among you, and then you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with joy the Holy Spirit, but listen to this. And then you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaea. In other words, I'm discipling you so that you can turn around and be an example, a second generation, a third generation to other believers.
Number 3, I love this. They don't need to be perfect. They just need to be real. Just look for people who are honest and real. I love that the vision of our church is to be real with ourself, God, and others.
I would rather have somebody that's real all day long than somebody that pretends to be perfect. Proverbs, I love Proverbs 27 has the wisdom to say it like this. It's iron that sharpens iron. Iron is very common. Right?
You you don't need vibranium. You know what I'm saying? Like, iron will do. For most of you, a sharp stick will do. Okay?
But you just need someone in your life that's that's grinding off the rough edges of your character in truth. Number 4, someone that genuinely cares for you. A lot of us didn't get this from our parents. A lot of us didn't get this in life. And so Paul says, I became like a spiritual parent to people.
1st Corinthians 4, he says this, for though you have countless guides in Christ, you don't have many fathers. But I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. And I urge you, there it is again, be imitators of me. Be imitators of me. Now listen what he says next.
That's why I sent you Timothy. In other words, by the time Paul is through discipling Timothy, he's like, you can watch Timothy and you get me. And when you get me, you get Jesus. There's a second, 3rd, 4th generation. He says, he's my beloved and faithful child in the Lord to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach him everywhere I go.
You need a spiritual father, a lot of us do, or a spiritual mother to retrain you, to reteach you the basics. You know, the guy that discipled me in college, his name is Sean, and his father was not in his life. Later, just several years ago, he actually found out that his father passed away. He got a letter in the mail. It was an inheritance check for 29¢.
And he just said, wow. That was the legacy of my earthly father. But you know what? A ski coach in Colorado came alongside Sean's life, led him to Christ and discipled him, taught him how to study the Bible, taught him how to share his faith. Sean ended up teaching me the same things.
I remember the second time, he we went out to share the gospel. He had kinda I'd seen it once. We sat down with a guy. We got started and like 2 minutes into it, he's like, oh, I gotta go. And he left and I looked up and he was gone.
And he just left me to share the rest of the gospel with this dude. And I was like, that was genius, you know. I was like I can't wait till I disciple somebody. Someday I'm gonna do that to him, you know. He taught me how to study the Bible.
I was like I can't wait till someday I can teach somebody study the Bible. I watched him date and get married. And I remember after he's married, he we were walking around one day and he goes, Claude, you know the verse that says live with your wife in an understanding way? He goes, I get that now because you're not gonna understand anything your wife does. And I thought, I wanna get married someday so I cannot understand my wife.
You know, like I imitated everything this guy did. Was he perfect? No. But I got to see Jesus in a man, and and he left a new legacy, in his life and in mine. Number 5, do look for people who model God in real life.
Philippians 4, Paul says this, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice all those things. And the God of peace will be with you. You know, if you want content, you can go to YouTube. But do you know why you need to come here? It's because you need a human.
You need someone in your life that can see your character, that can see who you are when you're driving on the 91 and encourages you to pursue God's best and encourages you to pursue a godly life. First Thessalonians 2 says this, for you know that we dealt with each of you like a father deals with his children. And that means in love, in truth, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God who calls us into his kingdom of glory. Who's in your life encouraging you like that? Who basically sees the potential in you that maybe other people haven't seen.
You know, any of you guys watch Mandalorian? Anybody watch that? I I I enjoyed the series, but I'll be honest. I was a little frustrated, okay, as I watched it because because of baby Yoda. Okay?
And let me tell you why baby Yoda's frustrating. It's because all around him, people are getting shot. You know what I'm saying? There are people who are dying. Like, it's there's stuff going on.
There's risk. And then you got baby Yoda just sitting there looking all cute. And if you don't know, baby Yoda is 50 years old. Right? So he's still a baby, which is kinda weird.
You know? And it's it's frustrating because you know, if you've watched any Star Wars, you know what a grown a full grown Yoda can do. And you're like, you're cute, but you're kinda useless Yoda. You know what I'm saying? Baby Yoda, I I'm sure Mando, there had to be times where he's getting shot at, fighting off legions of stormtroopers, and, like, yo, I sure could use, like, a teenage Yoda right about now.
Would you stop eating frogs for a minute and, like, help out, dude? When's your growth spurt? Come on. Yo, it's frustrating. So listen.
I gotta follow someone who won't let me settle. Write that down. I need to follow someone who looks at my potential and won't let me settle. First Corinthians 3, this is what Paul says to the church. Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh because you were babies.
You were infants in Christ. And so I had to feed you with milk, not solid food. You know what he's saying? He's saying you're the 50 year old baby. He's saying you're you something about your growth has been stunted.
You're the infants. He's saying you're the 50 year old baby and not growing is not okay. And he's saying, man, we're in a real battle right now for the souls of people and we sure could use some grown men who know how to pray. We sure could use some godly women who are kind. We need you in the battle right now.
And discipleship is what gives you and leads you not just from milk, but to solid food. You need someone to disciple you in the basics. You know, I've been telling people this, but we need to learn how to feed ourselves from God's word. You watch the Nature Channel and you see the penguins that, like, they catch a fish. The mama penguin does.
They chew it up, then they spit it in the baby's mouth. It's the grossest image, but can I tell you that's what a sermon is? That's all this is is chewed food. I've done the work. I've got into God's word.
I've prayed. I've wrestled with it, and I've got the best nutrients out of it and I give you something that will keep you alive for another week, but that's not how it's meant to be. You're meant to learn through discipleship how to feed yourself and then eventually feed others. You know, I remember when our kids were young, like, you know, 4 3, 4, 5, I realized that my wife and I had very different priorities for our 2 boys. My priorities were to teach them how to pee standing up because mom didn't do that.
She came from all girls and, risk control when we wrestled. That was important to me. And then I realized we had very different priorities. I opened our closet downstairs, and there was this huge chart, this big checklist, of stuff, like tie your shoes and all. And I was like, what is this?
She was like, well, they're gonna start kindergarten next year, and I'm I'm gonna I gotta get them ready. I was like, next year? You know what I mean? Like, I didn't know what the schedule was for this week. She's like, she's planning how to cook them meals that they'll make for their wife one day.
You know what I mean? That's that's how far in the future my wife is. I'm trying to keep them alive. She's preparing them for life. So you need to follow somebody like that.
Number 3, you need to follow somebody, a spiritual leader, who has a plan, who has a plan to help you move on to maturity. Colossians, Paul says this, him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature. That's the goal, to take steps toward maturity. For this, I toil, I struggle with all His energy that He powerfully works in me. You know, I think there's a difference between mentorship and discipleship.
Mentorship is great if you want to learn a specific thing, but it's kind of passive. You go and learn from someone, but discipleship is more like having a personal trainer. They have a plan for you and they're not asking your opinion, but they're gonna get you somewhere that you can't get on your own. They're gonna teach you how to live a godly life, and just like Hebrew says, teach others. The goal is it of it is by this time, you ought to be teachers.
That's the vision. And really remember, without a mission, we don't grow. Without a mission, we don't grow. And the mission that God has for you is to multiply. And you need a voice that speaks that.
You ever had somebody talk you into something? Usually that ends in the emergency room, you know. You can make it. Wait. What are the phrases?
Oh, they don't bite? You know, that's a good one. Right. You know? See or or one more try.
That's usually never say that. But, man, you need a voice in your life. I remember the guy another guy that discipled me. You know, he was the person who talked me into writing a book. He was the person who said, have you ever I think you should go to seminary.
I think you need to go into ministry. I think you should speak. I and I realized at one point, he had bigger dreams for my life than I did. You need a voice like that. Man, this spring, I got to lead about 60, 70 of our pastors and leaders in our church through a study, and it was awesome.
But at the on the last day, one of the questions I just kinda asked was, you know, how who's responsible for you being in ministry and being in this room? Some of you guys were there and I remember it was amazed. I couldn't have planned this, but I remember 5 different people in the room pointed to Pastor Andrew Bogan Wright. Five people in the room said that Andrew was the person who said to me, I think God can use you. Pastor Andrew was the first person that said to me, Man, I believe in you.
You can do things for the kingdom. He said, you can. And he multiplied. Man, a spiritual multiplier can rescript the monologue that's in your heart. And you need to follow someone, number 4, with a vision like that to multiply your life.
Paul's dream for Timothy was way past Timothy. 2nd Timothy 2:2, a verse that all of us as pastors have committed to memorize, says this, and Paul is saying to Timothy, the things now, after I've discipled you for years, the things that you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust those behind you to faithful people who will be able to teach others also. In other words, Paul's vision was way past Timothy. It was for a 3rd generation of faithful men and women and a 4th for a 4th generation of others also. You need someone that dreams for you a legacy like that that's way past your life.
My friend in college, I was friends with a bunch of guys who are Lambda Kais, this fraternity. I wasn't a Lambda Kais, but I knew the founding members of our chapter. And so it was kinda like they honorary let me hang out with them. And when you think fraternity, most of you probably think the movies and the parties and all that stuff, which sometimes that's true. I got a buddy that had to call the fire department to get the horse off the roof of their house.
So that's a whole another story. Okay. But my friend John, he joined the fraternity for a way different purpose than party. And he brought me with him one time with some freshmen to a room that they had that had all the composite pictures of each class. It was like each year, of the members of the fraternity kind of laid out.
And as he walked these guys up to the pictures, he started pointing to people and he said, see that guy right guy right there? Said his legacy, man, was success, man. He made a lot of money. He was successful. This guy over here, his legacy was he's funny, man.
He's hilarious. We love this guy. This guy down here, he's in prison. Alright. This guy over here, he went on to be an actor, you know, and he just kinda walked through these different people he remembers.
Then he moved to the next picture. He's like, but see this guy right here, he led these 5 guys in the fraternity to Christ. Then he walked to the next picture and those 5 led these 10 guys to Christ. And he said, this one right here discipled people and this guy right here led me to Christ. And then he walked up to their picture on the wall and he said, boys, here's your picture.
He goes, but what I want you to think about is you see the blank space on the wall to the right? Someday, there's gonna be someone on that wall that looks back and says something about you. And what are they gonna say? What are you gonna leave behind? That's what it looks like to have a vision to make disciples.
Listen, Sandals Church 2023, we're there right now. That blank space is right now. The opportunity to disciple your kids is right now, and it's passing you by. The next generation of the church is here right now, and it's passing us by. The baptisms that are happening are happening right now.
And by now, you should be teachers, but you need someone to teach you. You need a Paul in your life. You need a spiritual leader. Imagine your life if you gave somebody a year to disciple. Imagine how that would change your parenting.
Imagine how that would change your marriage. Young adults, imagine how that would change your wisdom, the choices of your entire life. Who's your Paul? My prayer for us is that you would those are the kind of conversations that would come out of this weekend, is that you would ask somebody to disciple you, that you'd find someone like this and say, man, I'm not gonna let them go, so that you can turn around and say to others, follow me as I follow Christ. Then God can multiply your life.
Let's pray that together. God, the image that just keeps coming back to me are these hands that have been curled up for way too long. And God, we confess those are our hands. And they've been unused out of fear. They've been unused maybe feeling inadequate or maybe because the generation before us just didn't teach us how.
And I pray right now by the power of your spirit, you be begin to uncurl fingers so that something beautiful that's going undone right now would become a part of this story. God, you would release people to be on mission for you who are missing because no one has discipled them. So God, would you help us to ask someone to mentor us and disciple us and be our spiritual leader? And if others ask us and we can't say yes, maybe we need to ask why, why we're not there yet. God, as we do that, I pray that you would multiply our legacy.
30 generations, 60 generations, and a 100 generations into the future, and we pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Morgan Teruel: We hope your summer holds a lot of restful opportunities and room for a nice break from the norm. We, at Sandals Church, want you to know that you can be a part of us from wherever you go and however your rhythms look different in this season. We'll continue releasing weekly sermons and content on all podcast platforms, as well as on YouTube. You can also give to Sandals Church at any time by going to donate dot sc. Thanks for being a part of this place.
We hope you have a great summer.