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: Welcome back, Sandals Church. This week, we're gonna talk about how to have unbreakable peace, how to have a heart full of peace. Doesn't that sound awesome? I'll tell you one of the things that gives me peace is that when I grew up and I was young and I was dumb, it was before the Internet. Right?
How many have peace because of that? When we were the we had the least wisdom, we had the worst cameras. Praise the lord. Right? Now everything's online, and, you know, you put it online.
Like, you're the one that put that stuff out there. Now we live in a world where everybody's gonna Google you. You know? If you have a job, I guarantee you, your boss has Googled you. I was talking to a realtor, like, not too long ago, and he starts Googling me while we're on the phone.
And he's like, are you, you know, are you the author, the preacher, or the guy that does BMX tricks? And I was like, well, whichever one sounds the least weird. You know? If you go on a date, I guarantee you there's people goo there's a whole squad of people googling you. Okay?
They got the whole team googling you. I would do that. You know? If I had daughters, I would create a fake Instagram just for recon. You know what I mean?
Can you imagine the conversations? It's like, hey, Billy. I saw that you got a pony in the 3rd grade. Did you love it unconditionally? You know?
My son, he came home from, like, 6th grade. 1st day of school, he's like, dad, my friends Googled you, and they found the most embarrassing thing ever. And I was like, gosh. What? He was like, a picture of our family.
You know? I didn't know whether to be, you know, relieved or offended. Pastor Matt loves it. He always says, man, only God and Google know all about you. Most of us are more afraid of Google than God.
But listen. I want to talk about how our past I think our past weighs on our heart more than we think. You know, even when there weren't cameras, there's some of those things in our heart that replays over and over. You know, I I'm not a big Marvel movie guy, so forgive me if I get some of this wrong, but we watched some of the Marvel movies, and one of the characters I really felt like I resonated with was Natasha, like Scarlett Johansson's character, Black Widow, whatever you want to call her. I think she resonated with a lot of people because it seems like she has some darkness in her past.
You know, she's something that that's weighing heavy on her heart. And even though we see some of her past, we don't see all of it, but we see it in the way she carries it. And I love what she says. She says, you know what? I have read in my ledger.
And I think that phrase jumped out at me because we can all relate to this idea that, man, I've got red in my ledger, and it affects my relationships. It affects her peace. And the thing that breaks my heart is she doesn't know how to fix it. And a lot of us don't know how to resolve it. And her past has robbed her of her peace.
I think if we're honest right now, we would say, man, all of us, our past sin has robbed us of some of the peace in our life and maybe more than we think. Listen, I want to just tell you real quick, I'm not talking about trauma or things that may have happened to you or other people's sin. I'm talking about the sin that we brought on ourself, and I think it robs us of our peace because we can't be silent. You know, think about it. It's one of the reasons we need a phone.
We need a screen. We can't be in our car without music. We can't stand in line because when we get silent, our heart starts Googling our path, and you don't like what comes up on the results from your past. Proverbs 15 says this, even death and destruction hold no secrets from the Lord. How much more does he know the human heart?
You're like, well, I had peace until now, Claude. But even Google doesn't know the real you, but god does. I think it affects even our ability to pray when we get alone with god and try to pray. Proverbs 2027 says this, the lord's light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive. Now we're talking about motives.
You know, you've ever been through the TSA where they scan, you know, everything, and then they go through your bag? Like, it's intimidating. You got to be transparent, and there's times I forget about stuff that's in there. You know? Like, every time I go through China, I lose something, but they find it.
Okay? And listen, God, he knows the stuff you don't even know about yourself, but I think it affects our ability to pray. We don't wanna be laid open before God in prayer. One of the most heartbreaking things too is just our sleep. Do you know 1 in 3 Americans are sleep deprived?
It's a $60,000,000,000 industry now. There's always a new app for your phone, a new mattress, you know, new medicine. It affects people's mental health. You're 7 times more likely to get an accident like at work or your car. I mean, people are dying for sleep.
They're dying to rest, dying to sleep, dying for peace, and I think it's because we have read in our ledger that discomfort we feel, we don't have a sleep problem. We have a sin problem. You with me? You know, you don't need the my pillow guy. You need Jesus.
Alright? And so the reason I want to talk about this is as I'm studying Proverbs, I realize there's this link between our peace and our integrity. And so, it's like God is saying, men, integrity is the pathway to real peace. I wish I'd have heard this as a youth. This is Solomon, a father who's writing to his son.
He's trying to warn him. This is, son, this is how you have peace in life. Proverbs 3 says this. My son, do not lose sight of these teachings. Keep sound wisdom and discretion.
They will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble. You know, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, one of the things we read is the first thing they lost was their sense of security. They were afraid and they hid from God. Look at listen to what it says next.
If you lie down, you will not be afraid. And when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Doesn't that sound awesome? Do you know God cares about your sleep? He cares about your peace and he cares about your future, that you feel secure.
He says this, do not be afraid of sudden terror or the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. You know, I love the vision of our church to be real. It's really this idea of integrity. Integrity is kinda who you are when no one's watching. And some of you might say, well, man, who cares who I am when nobody's watching?
Right? Like, I think a lot of us live that way. Like, what's not hurting anybody? It's just me. Right?
Like, in my car, it's just me. That's what we do. You know? When you're driving, you guys do things. You say things.
You know? You practice your sign language or listen to gangster rap or whatever you do in your car. You're like a different person. I go to this same coffee shop really early in the morning every day, and there's big windows in the front, so you see everything people do when they pull up. And, you know, before you've had your coffee is when you're just the stupidest.
So people put their coffee on their car and drive off. One poor girl, man, she pulled up and got out, and her car started rolling. Just rolled away in the parking lot. Almost hit a cop car. And, so one day, I went out, and it was I guess it was my turn.
I get in my car, and I'm backing out. I had this kind of big SUV at the time, so I'm backing out really slow, and as I start backing out, this attractive woman walks out of I don't know where. And it was like, am I in the matrix? You know? But this was real life.
And and so she caught my attention. And as I'm backing out, I'm like, well, it's just me. You know, it's just me. And it wasn't just me because a small little car had pulled up right behind me, and I'm backing toward it. Now let me tell you something.
This isn't my proudest moment. Okay? It wasn't a moment. It was like 3 seconds. It's not my proudest 3 seconds, but there was a battle going on inside of me.
And I could feel, you know, God and I could feel Bible verses, you know, trying to swim to the you know, there's a verse in Job that talks about I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully on a woman, and that it it was like they were trying to swim to the surface to stop me. And finally, I just said after 3 and a half seconds, I said, I I gotta look away. And I looked behind me just in time to not hit the car. Now some of you call that victory. I don't.
Okay? I pulled back in the parking spot and thought, man, what just happened? Because it was not just me. It was not just me. And I started thinking about what all could have happened just now.
You know, first of all, the whole coffee shop would've saw and laughed at Pastor Claude. I don't care about that. I would've had to go home and tell my boys and my wife, which I did, anyway, but that would've hurt our relationship. What if I'd have lied to them though? Like, now I have trouble in my home, in my relationships.
What if I'd hit the car, and now it's costing me money? And then I started thinking, dude, I forget the car. What if I'd have hit someone? Like, I could have killed someone today. I could have went to jail.
That doesn't look good on a pastoral resume for the future. You with me? Like I almost hurt every good thing in my life. It was not just me. I almost destroyed my home, my finances, my relationships, and my future in 3 seconds.
And so, I wanna talk about how integrity is God's pathway to peace in those things. Number 1, I want you to write this down. My integrity brings peace, first of all, into my home, to the people I love, people that are closest to me. Proverbs 20, verse 7 says this, the godly walk with integrity. Blessed are their children who follow them.
My the guy that discipled me used to say this, Claude, nobody sins in a box. It always affects people. See, sin will endanger your home, but wisdom is a blessing to your children. Wisdom brings a blessing to those closest to you. Proverbs 14 says this, in the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence and his children will have a refuge.
You know, the greatest refuge you can give to your family is your integrity. But the greatest threat to your family right now is your integrity. When we get to the end of Proverbs, we're gonna see Proverbs 31, and the hero of the last chapter is a strong woman, a wise woman. She's a wife and a mom. We find out she has a business.
She earns money on her own. She uses it. And listen listen to her piece in Proverbs 31. It says this woman, she is not afraid of the snow, the winter for her household because all her household are clothed in scarlet. She's prepared them.
She's earned money, but she's used it to bring blessing to her home. Her wisdom has brought blessing to her home, and so she's not afraid of the storm. Four verses later says this, strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. That's unbreakable peace. That's financial peace.
You know, she can laugh at the future. I don't think she's rich, but I think she's content, and she's strong. And now, you know, I wonder ladies, what what is it that makes you feel confident when you walk out, you know, every day? Is it your is it your clothing or what you wear? You know, what is it that makes you a strong woman?
I wonder if he interviewed this lady in the red carpet and said, what what is it? I mean, here's this strong, confident, godly woman. What are you wearing? Is that Dolce Gabbana? She goes, no.
It's strength and dignity. That's like a bible mic drop right there. Strength and dignity. Put that on a cultivate hoodie. I would buy I would buy that.
Right? But listen, ladies, her children, husbands, her family, they get to watch her trust God. And when she laughs at problems, it's because when you trust God and your God is big, your problems are small. And she has this inner strength to trust God with her finances, and she kept her dignity to do it. That's called integrity.
You know, I think one of the areas that we're tempted in first is finances. In our integrity that we compromise usually first with our finances. You know, I There was this moment, in 2020 where the government was rolling out money. They were like dumb and dumber, man. They were handing out money, and one of them was the payroll protection program.
It's for small businesses and organizations like ILEAVE. And it was a lot of money. It wasn't like the stimulus. I mean, the stimulus was kinda that didn't really live up to the hour, did it? You know?
You you've been drowning for a year, and then they sent you $600. It was like I would've read it had 600 of those fake, you know, Jesus loves you bills. You know? I would've felt better. But the payroll protection money, it was a lot of money.
Okay? And and it was a lot 1,000,000,000 of dollars going out. And but they said, you know, it's a loan, but we're gonna forgive you. Don't worry. Which I'm like, this sounds like a trick.
You know what I mean? You know, my fear of your free money is in direct proportion to your ability to put me in jail for taking it. You know? It's like a IRS fishing trip. That's what that was.
You know? But I had an organizational friend who called me, and he was trying to pressure me into taking this money with him. And and he's like, you know, man, you need to do this. And I understood he feels like he's Robinhood. Like, let's take from the government, use it for good.
But I I was like, I don't need it. You don't need it either. I'm not even sure what he's doing was legal. I was like, I don't need it. I don't feel good about it.
This guy threatened me on the phone, but I said no, but man, I was mad at him. I was mad at him, and you know what made me even more mad? He got the money, like $1,000,000, and then I felt stupid. I was like you know, then I was having FOMO. Like, I was fear I mean, did I miss out on $1,000,000?
Shoot. You know, God, we could've that would've ran our ministry for 10 years. And so then I'm like, God, what is going on? Why? Let me tell you, God did 2 things.
First of all, and then 2 years after that, we've received for our ministry more foundation gifts than we've ever got. It's been amazing. I see God, you see us, you care for us, I'm trusting your way. Proverbs 35 says this, every word of God proves true and God proved himself. He can take care of my needs.
But then Proverbs says this, He is a shield. He protects those who have take refuge in Him. You know what happened after that? I was shielded because the Department of Justice said, oh yeah, we're coming after all those fraud people. It was like $80,000,000,000 in fraud.
10% of payroll protection went to people who made fraudulent claims. It's the largest fraud in history. You wonder why they're hiring 87,000 IRS Stormtroopers, is to come after those people. Right? And the Department of Justice guys said, I don't care who you are, where you are, what you do.
We will come after you. We will prosecute you to the full extent of the law. And you know what I did? I closed my laptop, and I took a nap. Like, I had peace, man.
Like, I went to sleep. You know what I'm saying? I and I I didn't have FOMO anymore. I had what I call JOMO. It's the joy of missing out.
Right? And JOMO's better. JOMO's way better. Like you can have peace with your finances. Number 2, I want you to write this down.
Integrity gives me peace financially. We trust God with our finances. Proverbs 15 says this, it's better, Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. And we all have FOMO. Maybe it's not money, but it's maybe it's a sexual desire, or maybe it's a bigger house or a perfect body.
But listen, there's always trouble that comes with it. You want you want the joy without the trouble. Proverbs 28 says this, better is a poor man. How backwards is this in our culture? Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.
See, god's ways are completely backwards. If you want integrity, you're gonna have to look foolish sometimes. You know, we're all honest till you hit somebody's car, and then people people will lie for a dollar. And, listen, Christian the Christian way is like Andy Stanley says, it's to lose on purpose, to keep your integrity. Integrity doesn't just rob us of our peace.
Sometimes it robs us of our relational peace. Right? Right? Like our relationships. My son, Hudson, man, I love him.
He came home you know, he was home from school doing work on his laptop for one of those semesters, and he just got so bored with the math lessons. It wasn't that it was hard. He was just bored. It took a lot of time, so he stopped doing them. And he he didn't do a lot of them.
Okay. It backed up like a like a couple of months worth of math lessons, and he got busted for it, you know? And so we're like part of it is like, you're gonna have to go back and do those lessons. I'm like, I don't even know how you're gonna do all those lessons. And but, you know, he felt horrible.
It's the first time I've really seen he knew, man. He broke some trust with with me and mom, and he felt horrible. So, man, we went to sleep. The next morning, I got up and went downstairs, and there was somebody, like, in our kitchen. And and I I don't have weapons.
You know? I don't really worry about getting robbed. Like, if you robbed our house, it'd be the saddest robbery ever. Can I just tell you? You break it.
You they'd probably leave us a TV with a apology note. But it wasn't Robert. It was Hudson. And he was in our kitchen with his laptop. And I'm like, what are you doing?
He's like, I'm doing my math lessons. And I said, what? And he said, I couldn't sleep. He's like, dad, I just I didn't have peace, man. I could not sleep.
He had read in his ledger. That's what it was. And I said, well, how's it going? He's like, I'm almost done. Like, what time did you come down here?
He said, 2 in the morning. See, he didn't grow in love with math. He wanted to restore peace. He wanted to be right. And he said, dad, when I get done, tell mom to never ever talk about this again.
I was like, okay. We got it. Never talk about it again. Number 3, integrity can do that. It can restore your peace in your relationships.
Now later in Romans, Paul writes to the Roman church, and he says this, if it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. In other words, he's saying, if you can, go as far as you can with everyone you can. Says if possible. So there's some things that are not your side of the table, but if it's possible, go as far as you can. Do you remember Zacchaeus?
He said, man, I'm gonna pay back even 4 times if I have to to clear things up. Go as far as you can with everyone that you can. And you can pray about who everyone is to clear up relationships. Now here's the good news. The Bible assumes that you're gonna sin and that we sin, but there's hope.
Because the Bible talks about how to confess to build relationships back. Proverbs 28 says this, people who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy. You know, so, usually, the first question I ask in our home is, man, were they caught or do they confess? Because there's 2 different paths. But I think, listen, genuine confession is a type of integrity.
And I know that might be a big challenge for some of you that have things on your heart. And can I just say this? If you can't confess right now to someone, at least start with turn. Remember, we confess and turn. If you don't feel safe confessing, at least turn, break up with that sin today.
And maybe there'll be a place in the future where you can confess it. And the other problem with us though is I think we just think we're too smart and then we won't get caught. You know, we just flat out think we'll get away with it. Proverbs 10 says this, whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. And that's gonna rob you of your peace in the future.
You know, 10 years ago, the director of the CIA, this is on CNN, the director of the CIA got caught having an affair because of his text message. I was like, dude, that's the director of the CIA. Guys, I'm like, we don't have it. We are horrible at hiding stuff. Alright, guys?
You know, you you don't even try. Like, just keep your integrity because your wife's already smarter than you. You know, she's more intuitive than you. You think you surprised her for her engagement? She knew a month ahead of time.
Okay? She got her nails done that day with an appointment. Alright? But this is the director of the CI this is like Jason Bourne's boss. You know?
This guy monitors spies in other countries. You know, you and I need a 12 year old to set up our email on our phone. So if he can't do it, we got no hope. Alright? And this is why, man, this is one of the things that keeps me from sin sometimes, just to be honest, it's not always holiness.
It's that I know I'm stupid, and that I will get caught. And it's that fear, because you know what? I want to walk secure. Like I want to wake up tomorrow and I want security. Like I want peace.
I don't want skeletons. I don't want the dread of the future. And so number 4, integrity can bring peace into my future. Proverbs 1 says this, wisdom is speaking. And wisdom says, whoever listens to me will dwell secure.
There'll be at ease without dread of disaster. Now, a lot of people think I smoke pot, but I've just got no secrets. All right? That's why I'm just at ease. I'd have no dread of a disaster.
You know what dread a disaster is for us? It's been exposed. It's been exposed for our sin. You know, you wonder why there's so many conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein and all that stuff. I mean, he everybody thinks, you know, there's this basically pedophile global you know, pedophile flight list out there.
People go missing. People turn up dead. I mean, it's suspicious. Right? And the real question I think everyone's asking is, what length would you go to cover your sin?
What length would you go to cover your sin? And can I tell you the answer is further than you think you would? There's a man in the Bible, he's not the director of CIA, he's the king, David. David was a man of God, but you know what? David lacked integrity, and he slept with a woman named Bathsheba, it was not his wife, and he got her pregnant.
So now he fears being exposed, and it led this man, this king, this man of God, it led him to commit murder, to try to cover his sin. How far would it lead you? The answer is farther than you think. It led you think David planned on murdering someone that year? It led to murder.
You know what's more common to cover sin? Unfortunately, people won't kill somebody else. They think they need to kill themselves. Listen to me. Sin wants to take your life.
Sin wants to take your life, and your future's not safe. And can I say this to us that are Christians, we need to be safe people for others to come confess to and point them to the mercy of God, because this fear of man is a life or death issue? Proverbs 29 says this, the fear of man lays a snare. It's a trap, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. I want you to be safe.
And sometimes, when I lack peace in my heart, can I just be honest with you? It's actually a gift from God. What what bothers me is when my sin stops bothering me. That means I'm only worried about the fear of man. See, your lack of peace is a symptom.
It's a warning, and it's driving you to the real issue. You need peace with God. The real disaster is not CNN or facing your spouse or a judge or your enemy. The real disaster ahead of us is that one day we have to stand before a holy God. And listen to me, even if you clear up all the relationships, pay back all your taxes, spend time in jail, whatever it is, you cannot pay off your sin.
And that that restless restlessness that you have in your heart, you're gonna have it until you have peace in this life and peace with God in the next life, but there's there's hope for us. Number 5 is this last point. Being real with God can bring me peace for eternity. Proverbs 19 promises this, the fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied, and he will not be visited by harm. Will not be visited by harm.
Can I tell you, man, when we moved to California, the thing I was worried about was earthquakes? I had, like, the kit under the bed and water, you know, and I you know, everybody scared me of earthquakes, and I realized that y'all most of y'all had never seen a tornado. Right? Like you realize what a tornado is? It's like a weaponized cloud, man, bombing down on you.
You're scared of thunder and lightning. That's the fun part. I brought pastor Matt to Arkansas for a weekend, and then he was terrified. There was a storm. He took a picture of the like Doppler radar.
It's all red and, you know, green and yellow and all that stuff, post it. And people were like, we're praying for you, Matt. Hope you survive. I texted him. I'm like, did you post a picture of rain?
Right? Like that was rain. My first earthquake, I thought my neighbor backed into my garage. I didn't even get out of bed, but a tornado can pick up a semi truck and flick it like a paper football. That's that's what a tornado does.
Right? You saw Wizard of Oz. That's a small one. That's a f one. Oklahoma City, there was an outlet mall that got hit by an f 5 tornado, and the next time I drove by, the only thing left was the parking lot.
Listen. You need a shelter. Most people in Oklahoma don't have basements. You need a shelter. A friend of mine, his dad, he started this company, and he built built these steel bunkers that you put in your garage.
I went to my friend's house. I'm like, what is that? And he said, it's a tornado shelter. It's bolted to the foundation of the house. It's solid steel, this thick.
And he said, now my family, we have a place to run. We have a place to run to to be safe. Listen to what Proverbs 18 says. The name of the lord is a strong tower, and the righteous man runs into it and is safe. Listen.
We had so much red in our ledger. Man could not fix this. The real peace you need is from God himself, and the proof that God already knows how ugly my sin is and your sin is is the cross. An ugly, horrible, bloody cross. That's how bad it was.
There was a disaster coming, but can I tell you, Jesus stepped in front of that disaster? You read the proverbs and you think, man, I can't do any of this stuff. You're exactly right. You can't. You can't.
And he stepped in front of the penalty for it. He absorbed our sin and canceled it, and then he credited his integrity to you and me. He calls it righteousness. Listen, God made a place for you to run and be saved. Jesus is the strong tower, and God says, anyone who runs to my son, I will make his ledger clean forever.
And if you wanna have unbreakable peace like that, it's only secured in an unbreakable promise at the cross. And my prayer for you is this, is that you'd stop ignoring your past, you'd stop trying to hide your past, but that you would bring it to Jesus where he pays for it. And listen, when we get real with God, we have nothing left to hide. And because Jesus pays for it all, you have nothing left to fear. Let's pray.
God, the only peace that really lasts in this world forever is peace with you. And, god, we confess we have not had integrity, in our home. We haven't had integrity with our finances. We've failed in our relationships, and we feel the weight of it, god, in our heart. And, Lord, through confession and turning from our sin, you promise that there's mercy, that if anyone who needs to hear this today needs peace, you invite us to run to the cross.
And God, the life that is hidden in Jesus there is the unbreakable life forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.