Vivi Diaz: This is the Sandals Church Podcast, a place for real people with real struggles learning to follow Jesus. Wherever you are right now, driving, working, or trying to make it through the day, we are really glad you're here. Let's get into today's message.
Pastor Claude Hickman: You know, knowing the Bible and agreeing with the Bible does not equal obeying the Bible. Amen? You know, I feel like I know God's word. I know God's way, but often I find myself choosing my own way over and over and over. And and I you know, you ever find yourself just like I'm driving off a cliff in life and you look and you're like, man, whose hands are those on the wheel?
You know what I'm saying? Like, they look familiar and they look a lot like mine. How did I get here? And and maybe the bigger question is, man, how do I change? How can I change and how can I start to obey God?
You know, when Rebecca and I first started dating, she said this to me one day. She said, hey, I wanna go to Little Rock, Arkansas. It's like an hour away, and there's some missionaries that are leaving and I wanna go to the airport. I wanna pray with them and send them off. And I said, yes.
Of course. Let's go. Now I probably said that to impress her. You know what I'm saying? Had I ever ever done anything like that before?
No. But this is like a 100 boyfriend points, you know, in the system. So I'm like, let's go. Let's do it. So we go to Little Rock.
We're leaving the airport that night. It's like 10:00 at night. We get on the highway, and immediately, there is a fork in the road. And I hear Rebecca say, you need to go left. And I just said, you know, and I'm a guy, like, know what I'm saying?
I don't take directions from a girl. And so and I know I don't say that, but I say, you know, in my head I know for a fact that Oklahoma is to the right. I remember where we came from. I know which direction Oklahoma is and home is, so I stay in the right lane. And I hear her say again, she goes, you need to go left.
And I look at her and I don't think I patted her on the head, but I probably said something like that. Like, oh, that's sweet. You know, like, let let me do the driving. And when I look back at my lane, it had turned into a bridge now, and we are going up and over. And as I look out the window, I can see the lane that goes to Oklahoma going under us, and we are now going the opposite direction straight to the doghouse.
You know what I'm saying? So whatever bonus points, you know, I just earned, I just flushed all of them. Right? Like, I just lost all my bonus points. I'm like, oh, no.
Like, this is bad. Now, a normal Christian, that would be the end of the story, but oh no, I don't do anything halfway. Right? I decide I'm gonna get off on Highway 9. I'm gonna somehow make a shortcut out of this.
Okay? I think, man, I can fix this. And I get off on this little highway road in Arkansas. Now I don't know, but I found out later, people in Arkansas call these roads all the way back to Fayetteville, they call them the Pig Trails. Alright?
No kidding. Look this up. They they call them the Pig Trails because they're windy, they curve, they're dangerous, especially if you're driving fast and angry and embarrassed like I am now. So the longer we're on these roads, the faster I'm driving, the more dangerous it's getting. You know, she's getting scared.
And listen, you know what? I found out later, the pig trails never circle back. Like, they never touch the highway. We drove three hours home like that in silence. In silence.
And I was like, why am I so stupid? Right? Like why do I do these things? And let me tell you something about the Bible if you haven't realized this by now. God's way always looks like it's the opposite direction than the world's way.
You know, you go up giving like if I give, I'm blessed. I don't get that. You know, honesty, like you want me to lose on purpose? Purity? Like surely I'm missing out.
God's way always looks like it's the opposite. But you know what's worse, if I'm honest? Even when I know God's way and even when I know it's right and it's good, I still turn and go my own way. Why am I like that? And if that feels like you, I want you to read one of the most shocking passages in scripture.
It's by a guy who wrote almost half the New Testament, the Apostle Paul. And if you've never seen this, you're gonna be shocked that the Bible's this real about our struggle with sin. This is what Paul says in Romans seven. And honestly, this is just a melody of verses to give you an idea of what he's saying. Starts in verse 15.
He goes, I don't really understand myself. Anybody there? Amen. I want to do what's right, but I don't do it. Instead I do what I hate.
Verse 18, I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature and I want to do what's right. Do hear his heart? But I can't. I want to do what's good, but I don't. I don't wanna do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
I have discovered this principle of life that when I want to do what is right, inevitably I do what's wrong. And he said, I love God's law. I love it with all my heart. But there Listen to me. There is another power within me that is at war with my mind.
I want you to underline this. This power makes me a slave to sin that's still within me. Whose hands are on the wheel? Oh, what a miserable person I am. You hear the hopelessness here.
Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Now let's be honest, how many of you want to grow in obeying God? Okay. Now if your hands not up, need to grow in honesty. You know what I'm saying?
You're you're lying to yourself and others right now. Man, we need to grow. Ezra knew that studying God's word was not enough. He said in his heart to study God's word and then to do it, to practice it. And you know, the Bible is very clear, but also men, sometimes we just know in our hearts what is the right thing to do.
Romans 14 says this, if you do anything you believe is not right, you're sinning. So to sin a lot of times I have to lie to myself. I know what I'm doing is sin. And then I start to lie to others around me and fake it. But most of all, I begin to lie to God.
And I wonder why do I feel this distance between me and God. Psalm 66 says this, if I cherish sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Some of you the anxiety that you feel, the dissonance in your heart that you feel is not your circumstances, it's because of your God. And you've turned left when he said go right. And it destroys not just your relationship with God, but it begins to dismantle every relationship in your life.
But listen, there's a cure. The good news is there's a cure and it's called a U-turn. The Bible calls it repentance. When we repent and we turn and since you're never gonna be done with your struggle and sin in this life, the Christian life is a lifetime of learning to U-turn, to apologize, to confess and turn around when we sin, it's a resolution. And that's why when Ezra in Ezra seven ten, when he resolves and sets in his heart some things, he doesn't just set in his heart to study God's word and then jump to teach it.
A lot of you guys wanna do that. But in the middle, he's so wise to say this, Ezra said in his heart to study the law of the Lord, to do it, and then to teach his statues in Israel. So this week, resolution number two for us as a church is this, that obedience is not optional. I want you to resolve today as a follower of Jesus to say, you know what? Obedience is not optional for the Christian life.
So let's talk about this. How do I grow in obeying God? Number one, I would say this and this is gonna hurt. Obey quickly. I've learned that it's like a band aid man.
Just obey quickly. Psalms one nineteen says this, I will hurry without delay to obey your commands. I will hurry. When's the last time that you've lost sleep over a wrong that needed to be made right over a sin or a secret that you needed to let to give to God and confess? Man, I'll be honest with you.
I've been in the middle of worship and I was convicted about the amount we were tithing. I've been in the middle of worship and had to sit down with my phone and change our tithe to have integrity before God. Men obey quickly. You know what Hebrews three says this, he's actually quoting Psalms 95. That's what the Holy Spirit says.
Today, when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled and when they tested me in the wilderness. They were in the pig trails themselves, weren't they? You know what would have been the right thing to do that night on the pig trails? The right thing to do is immediately pull over, laugh about it a little bit, apologize, ask forgiveness, and then turn around. You know, that that would have saved me hours, of driving on those dangerous roads.
It would have saved me a lot of pain and distrust and other things that I caused in our relationship because of that. But let me tell you that's what I would have done. When you have the humility to apologize and repent, it's actually a relationship builder. I would have gained 10,000 boyfriend points if I could have done that. Right, ladies?
You meet a guy who can apologize quickly and confess and ask forgiveness. Man, dude, that guy earns a million boyfriend points when he does that. Like short accounts build strong relationships. Keep short accounts. Now when we confess, I've learned this from pastor Matt.
He says this all the time. Even in confession, what? People still lie. People still hide some. There was a book that came out in the fifties, InterVarsity Press, and I remember this little booklet, I got ahold of it in college.
It was called My Heart, Christ's Home. And it was this really simple idea that my heart, my life should be like a home that Jesus can go into every room. There's no locked doors. There's no skeletons in closets. There's no basements.
I mean, you know, some of y'all got more classified documents in your garage than the president right now, you know, but there's no hidden sin. I remember when our kids were young, my wife, you know, she was trying to be nice and she bought these little clear shampoo bottles that you can get at Walmart for like 50¢ to put their stuff in. And the next week they were like, they just disappeared. I don't know what happened and so she bought some more. And a few weeks later, she looked and, you know, they were kinda they they kept disappearing.
And finally, after, like, seven or eight of these little bottles, she's like, is there, like, a wormhole, you know, in our shower or something? Like, what is going on? I walk in our boys' room, and I see one of them laying on the bed like a pharaoh and he's sipping out of one, sipping water, you know, like it's a little flask. And then he gets his his eyes get really big and he kind of freezes. And I was like, where'd you get that?
He said, I don't know. I'm like he goes, here. You can have it. You can have it. You can have it.
I'm like, okay. And I go to walk away and I was like, wait a minute, dude. That that was way too easy. Right, dads? I'm like, do you do you know where the other ones are?
He's like, I don't know. I'm like, get up. Get out of the bed. I pull back his pillow, y'all, and it looked like a raccoon's, you know, nest, dude. It was a hoard of money, candy, Russian passport, you know, other eight bottles in there.
Like, no way. That's what we do. Like we come a lot of times and we confess one sin holding seven behind her back. Amen. And God is saying, man, partial obedience is not really obedience.
Obey quickly. Number two, obey fully. Obey fully. Some of you may remember a story from Joshua seven. It's the story of Achan.
And I was at a conference and it was the first time this story really meant it impacted my heart. At the time God's army was, you know, God was on their side, they were winning. Like all they do is win, win, win no matter what, right? And so they're winning, but then at the battle of Ai, dude, they get throttled. Thirty six soldiers die.
They're like, what in the world happened? Where was God? And God tells them, I'm no longer with you because there's sin in the camp. And they all look around, two and a half million of them, they look around, what do you mean there's sin in the camp? And they go family to family, clan to clan, tent to tent, and finally it stops at Achan's tent.
And Achan comes out and says, man, you're right. I stole from the last army gold and silver and I have it hidden in my tent. But listen, it didn't just cost him his life, it cost him his whole family's life. It's a horrible story. But I remember very clearly God saying to me, I want a 100% of your life, Claude.
Like do you want the defeat story or do you want the victory story? And that was the really, I think the surrender in my life that weekend to say, God, man, I wanna have a clear heart, a clear conscious. I want an open life with you. There's things that I need to get rid of. There's things that need to go.
There's secrets that need to be, you know, done away with, but I want your victory story. James four says this, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it's sin. I said, God, will you make sin like a splinter in my mind? And sometimes it's we know the wrong thing, but sometimes it's we know the right thing to do and we fail to do it. The story of Ezra is, to be honest, a problematic story for us.
I've read every commentary. I've read all the stuff about the story and none of it really satisfied me because it's a horrible conclusion. In the story of Ezra, they have sin in the camp because the men have married foreign wives who will not stop worshiping foreign gods. And they bring back their idols. And now the men of Israel are their attention and their allegiance, their devotion is being drawn away from Yahweh.
And they realize it and they come to Ezra and they say, then we know what we need to do. We will send away our wives. It is a horrible consequence. The Bible doesn't condone divorce. I don't know what to do with this book, but the point of it is clear.
God wants 100% of your devotion. And their obedience was extreme. It's extreme obedience to follow that. Now if you're not a Christian, the bad news is this, sin has a hold of the wheel. We can only sin.
Why does God desire 100%? Because he is 100% holy. And what I've realized is that most Christians, you still think like Buddhists. You still think that something you do is earning or that you're earning karma or that at the end, you know, some scale is gonna weigh out 51% or 49%. Listen, that's not what the Bible teaches.
James two ten says this, forever keeps the whole law but fails in one point is guilty of what? All of it. Zero God points. Zero. And if you don't know Jesus, all you can do is sin, sin, sin no matter what.
Sin has control of the wheel. That remember, I'm gonna read it back to you. Remember what Romans seven says, Paul says there's a power and it says this, there's another power in me. This power makes me a slave to sin. What a miserable person I am.
And he leaves off saying this, who will free me from this life dominated by sin and death? And I purposely didn't read the next verse because I want you to feel the tension of that. That's where we were. We were guilty of all of it. And then verse 25, Paul says this, thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And the very next verse, Romans eight one says this, so now there's no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus, but listen to verse two, but because you belong to him, there's a new power. The power of the life giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. There's a new power in the room. Jesus frees you, it frees your hands, free sin from the wheel of your life. You know, Carrie Underwood was right.
Jesus takes the wheel away from the power of sin and he sets you free. And I remember being in seminary when our professor explained this, that you are now set free as a Christian, you don't have to sin. And somebody raised their hand and said, well, then why do Christians still sin? And the professor just sat there and he smiled. And then finally after uncomfortable silence, somebody goes, we sin because we want to.
Sin doesn't have the power of your life, but it's your hands on the wheel. But here's the great news. There's another power. There's a third power to choose from. The power of the life giving spirit is available to help you and I do what you can't do.
Now, I remember last year, I was going to the rec at CBU and it's usually full of college students. This is on a break, so it was pretty empty. I think there's only one other dude in there. And he comes over me, he's like pretty stocky little guy. But he comes over me.
He's like, hey, man, will you spot me on the bench? I'm gonna do a PR. And you know what I should have said? No. Like, I looked around.
There's nobody else in the gym. I'm like, dude, I should not be spotting you. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're better off no spotter at all than me. I would probably just mess it up.
That's what I should have said. But you know what happened is my pride sort of started to kind of speak. I was like, dude, he asked me. You know what I'm saying? I don't know if it's the bulky sweatshirt or what, but maybe I look like the kind of guy that can spot this little weightlifter over here.
And so I found myself going, yeah, bro, let's do it. And so I go over now. Have I ever spotted anybody before? No. Do I know how to stand?
No. Do know how to hold the bar? No. I don't tell him that. So he puts his life on the line under this weight, an enormous amount of weight and I'm just, you know, he's PR.
He's doing PR. I'm PR a y. You know, I'm praying and somehow dude I watch him and I'm like, please Lord. And he gets it up. Gets it.
I'm like on the rack and I'm like, oh my gosh. Thank you. Now, you know, it's great because I can go home and I can tell my wife, dude, the boys at the gym think I'm a spotter. Like they look at me and they go, dude, that dude's got that that guy's a spotter. And then I hear him go, hey I'm gonna hit one more.
I'm like, No. No. I should have told him, you know. He gets on the bench, I get there and he gets halfway up and dude it's like stuck. And he's like, oh, I I look around.
Like I literally look around. There's nobody else in the gym. So I grab it and bro, it does not budge. He gets this look on his face like, I'm I'm lifting without a spotter. I'm like, I know.
You know? Somehow dude, by miracle, we got it back on the rack and I never went to the gym again at the same time. We survived. But listen to me, you know, I mean the whole time the reaper's just in the corner like, I love these guys. Listen, let me tell you why you fail.
Let me tell you why you fail at sin. It's because you're trying in your own power. Sin doesn't have power, but you're probably trying to obey in your own power. Here's the good news. There's another power in the room.
There is a power that you can call on to help you do what you and I cannot do in your strength. But you have to have the bold humility to ask. When you lift in your own strength, Satan's in the corner going, I love this. But when you have the humility to call on God, God will give you power. Number three, this is the only way to obey is by asking God for his power.
I obey quickly, I obey fully, but I have to ask God for his power to do what I can't do. Now let me tell you something, I'm about to baptize you into some deep theology right now and this is gonna shock some of you. But when you don't wanna obey, like when you don't want to, did you know God can change your heart to want to obey? Look at Philippians two, work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear for listen to this promise. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Hear that again. God can change your desire. When I'm tempted and I want to sin, I can ask God, God change my desire. I can start obeying before I feel it. I can obey quickly and fully, but I need to ask him to change my heart and give me power.
It gets better. Look at Ezekiel. I will put my spirit within you and look at this, I will cause you to walk in my commands and be careful to obey my rules. Is God gonna fail at something he will cause to happen? If you ask him no.
Look at Hebrews 13. May the God of peace equip you with everything for doing his will. How do you do that? And may he work in us. Whose hands are on the wheel?
Not sin, not mine. God's hands. He works in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ and to whom be the glory. You get life and God gets glory. That's how we obey him.
That's why I said this last week. When you resolve things for God, I believe you get a special power from God to do them. But listen to me, you have to ask. He's the spotter. You have to call to him.
You have to have the humility, the bold humility to call to him and ask. Hebrews four sixteen says this, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God For there we will receive mercy and find grace to help when we need it the most. When we need it most, we don't run away from him, we run to him. We call to him for grace to help. You know, when you're a mom of young kids, you you kinda pack, you know, just everything.
Right? Like, their purses have everything in it. If there's ever an apocalypse or, know, some kinda natural disaster, go find a mom because survival tip number one is find a mom. You can live for like two weeks off just what's in their purse, amen. And I remember when our boys were young, my wife, she was at the park with a bunch of other moms.
She's got like a double stroller going. It's a hot day and they're out there and she they see this guy running through the park. He's all sweaty and he locks in on my wife. Like just for some reason locks in on her, runs straight up to her and he's like, I'm dying, man. You got anything?
And she's like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm running I'm training for an Ironman. I'm running 10 miles. And she looks at him and she's like, well, do you have goo? He's like, what's goo?
And my wife used to run like Ragnars and all this stuff. She's like, how are you a runner? You don't know what goo is. Goo is like, you know, step number one. It's what gives you the power and the sugar and the nutrients and things you needed.
You know, like, how are you out here running without goose? She's just roasting them, you know. And she looks and she looks at her double stroller and she's like, man, the closest thing I got are these, like, juice boxes for our boys. Boom. He's already sipping one of them.
You know? And it's kinda hard to look cool when you're like sipping a juice box from a bunch of moms. And then like what's funny is like he finished that one, he takes the second one. Right? No shame.
Just takes both of them from our boys. He's sipping the second one. When he gets done, he's like, thanks. And just bounces off, runs off. And the other moms are like, what in the world just happened?
You know, they're like, listen, Rebecca, you are too nice. That's what they said to her. Like, you are too nice. I would never give away, you know, both my juice boxes to some stranger like on a hot day. And she goes, Oh, he's not a stranger.
She goes, He's the pastor of my church. That's that's Matt Brown. He does stuff like that all the time. I love that guy. Listen, I I don't know where you're at, but maybe it's you today that you feel like you're running on empty and you're exhausted.
I felt like that. I wanna save you years of trying to run the Christian life in your own strength. Because often, man, when we need God most, what do we do? We run away from him instead of running to him. God is saying when you need me most, run to me.
I have everything that you need. I have the power to help you obey. Run to me. And you know why you can run to him? Because you are not a stranger to him.
When he sees you, he sees a friend. He loves you. You can change. That means you can obey. You can have the grace of God and you get life and he gets glory.
So can we resolve together as a church that man obedience is no longer optional? God, will you help us by your power, obey quickly, obey fully, and then reach to you in our time of need. Let's pray that together. Let's pray. God, I pray most of all that you would set someone free today who's enslaved to sin.
Really without you, Jesus, we would still watch our lives drive off a cliff. But thanks be to God. Thanks be to God for Christ Jesus who delivers us. And thank you God for your Holy Spirit now, your power to obey. God, would you change our desires?
Would you work in us that we would repent quickly and fully? And God, would you help us to resolve to run to your grace for help when we need it the most. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.