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 to Sandals Church. Let me tell you, I feel like a pretty good traveler. My wife and I, we spent the first 6 years of our marriage traveling to 49 of the 50 states, been to 20 something countries. We lead a ministry called the Traveling Team. You know, and so we've even done the drive from Oklahoma to LA probably every summer for the last 25 years.
Like, I I know how to plan. I know how to pack. Then we had kids. Okay? And we drove back to Oklahoma.
We got all the way to New Mexico, and I looked back and Aiden had no shoes. Alright? And he only has one pair of shoes, so he has no shoes for, like, the whole trip. And Hudson had crammed 13 chocolate chip cookies into that little seat belt hole in the back, and I said, I'm no match. Okay?
Like, I am not prepared for this. A a lot of planning and packing is it's and it's looking ahead. You know? It's looking ahead. And most people, they go somewhere and they think about bringing back a souvenir, but re it takes real like, a pro, to think about what do I wanna take with me to leave behind.
I wish when I took my wife to Paris, we would've taken one of those little locks, you know, to kinda leave behind, but I didn't know if that was cheesy or not or illegal, or whatever. You know, I I think sometimes when you go to Asia, I take little gifts to give away because that's culturally what you do in Asia. Let me tell you one of the greatest stories though. Somebody who thought ahead what he wanted to leave behind. If you ever get to go to Hawaii, on most of the islands, you'll see palm trees, but you'll see these big pine trees.
Anybody ever seen that? And have you ever wondered how they get there? Because pine trees aren't native to the islands like that. Well, 250 years ago, someone named James Cook, you know him as, like, captain Cook, that James Cook, packed with him from Europe pine seeds and brought them on the trip to plant them there. And here's why.
He said, 20 years from now, if there's a war, the British Navy is gonna need these pine trees. They're a 100 feet tall for the when they build their ships to defend this land, they'll need those trees for the masts of the ship. Think about the vision that that takes. You know, most people look at a seed. They don't think this is gonna win a war someday.
That's the kind of thing that takes a vision. Listen. When Jesus when we think about what did he leave behind, as he was looking ahead to the end of his short ministry, what did he leave behind? You know, I joked a few weeks ago, like, I wish he would've left behind some resources or buildings or lightsabers or, you know, something. Like, Moses got a cool staff.
Elijah had, like, a cloak. But Jesus you know, you kinda look and go, man. He left behind these, like, 11 dudes, but he left behind seeds. He left behind disciple makers. That was his plan for them to multiply.
We're gonna look at, it's really Jesus' final commission to the disciples, and it's it's his command. It's it's his final charge. Christians call it the great commission. So if you ever heard people talk about that, it's at the end of Matthew, and it's right before Jesus ascends back to the father. And this is what it says in Matthew 28 18 through 20.
Says, and Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, but then he says, go therefore. In other words, all that authority that that has been given to me, he's saying, I'm giving it to you. Now, therefore, go. There therefore, go. And make disciples of all the nations.
What does he want them to do? He wants them to multiply. They're the seeds in the world. Just like Hawaii now is filled with pine trees, He wants to fill the earth with his glory. He's leaving behind these men to make disciples of all the nations.
Then he says, baptize them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Why do we baptize people? So that that's that's how we identify with Christ publicly, he says. And then he says, teach them. Teach them to observe everything that I've commanded you.
Not not everything there is to know in the world, but everything I've commanded you is sufficient to teach them as you disciple them. And behold, this is the greatest part. He says, I I am with you always even to the end of the age. He wants them to multiply, to fill the world. He wants you and I to not just have a Paul in our life who disciples us, but he wants us to turn around and have a Timothy, someone that we disciple, that we would make disciples.
McKay Vandenberg: Hey, Sandals Church. Thank you so much for watching with us today. If you'd like to continue to support the work that Sandals is doing online or if you'd like to join us in this mission, you can do so by going to donate.sc. For now, let's get back into pastor Claude's message.
Claude Hickman: You know, I think the church doesn't do honestly a great job of looking ahead. We a lot of times, we spend our time looking back to the good old days and griping about, you know, gen z or whatever it is. But do you know why the world is the way it is? It's because the good old days didn't make disciples. You know, the church before us didn't pass on this legacy to the next generation.
They didn't reproduce and multiply. Listen. You can't complain about a generation that you refuse to disciple, and the last generation didn't pass it on. The real question we should ask is the church gonna go extinct in America. And if you don't think that can happen, look at Europe.
Go to a museum that used to be a church. Go to a mosque that used to be a church. Look at Turkey. Things that don't reproduce go extinct. You know what they're trying to do this year?
I don't know if you saw this. They're trying to bring back the dodo bird from extinction. You're like, I'm glad we're doing something important. You know? I remember that was the week that I paid my taxes, and I was so angry.
You know? And my wife was trying to tell me, no, babe. Our taxes only go to the good things. You know? The teachers, the police, the cops.
And then I flipped up CNN, it was dodo bird. I was like, I'm the dodo bird for paying for that. You know? Like, interesting fact, the dodo bird that they're bringing back is run for president in 24. Just to get you no.
The dodo bird went extinct. Like, it had its chance. Right? And it didn't reproduce, and now it's gone. Listen.
People who make disciples are an endangered species. You find 1, man, grab onto them. My my prayer for us is that we would bring discipleship back from the dead, that we would bring it back off the endangered species list. Number 1, I want you to write this down. Jesus doesn't just wanna save your life.
If you trusted Christ, you got baptized, all these things, man, that's awesome. But he wants to do more. He wants to multiply your life now. He wants you to multiply into the world. Luke 10:2, Jesus gives us one of his few, prayer requests.
Did you know Jesus asked us to pray for things? We didn't just go to Jesus and ask him to pray for us. He asked the disciples to pray. This is what he said. He said to them, look, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
There was something about that that bothered him. And he said, therefore, pray. Pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest that he would send out laborers into into the harvest field. You know, when God sees the world, I don't think he sees it the way you and I see it. The harvest is not the problem.
The the world out there is not the problem. In fact, in agricultural terms, the harvest is the most valuable thing that you have. If you don't harvest, it's life or death. And he's saying the harvest isn't the problem. The problem is the laborers, the workers are missing.
I would call those disciple makers. The people that have been left behind to do the work, they're missing. You know, I, we don't talk in agriculture terms a whole lot here, you know, especially Southern California, but I'm from Oklahoma. I know I have a lot of friends from Kansas, and I didn't even know the term flyover state until I moved here. And now I know that's what you you know, it's just like California, flyover, and New York.
That's the only 2 places you know. I'm kind of offended by that term actually because you need Kansas. Okay? Let me tell you something. When you fly over that, like, patchwork quilt of squares, you know what that is?
That's food. That's your food. When you go to Trader Joe's and get your cave aged, goir cheese, you know, and your kale chips, That doesn't come from California. Alright? You get your weed in California and your peaches in Georgia.
Everything else comes from Kansas. Okay? And if they don't harvest, you don't eat. Right? Like, you need them.
They don't take the summer off to go skiing. They they feed the country. I I have a friend from Kansas, and he went away on a mission trip one summer. And when he came back, the the family whose farm is next to him, they had also went on a long trip, but they'd hired workers. They commissioned workers to do the harvesting.
And when he came back, it was harvesting. And when he came back, it was burnt. It was all dried by the sun. It was ruined. And they said, what happened?
And the workers they hired didn't show up. We're talking $100,000 worth of food and income. Can you imagine that phone call? Like, what happened? Right?
Like, was I not clear? Do you understand what's at stake? Jesus is gonna return someday, and I think he's gonna look and go, man, there were some people who worked and there's some people who didn't show up. The harvest listen. I promise you.
In 2023, the harvest is still plentiful. I can give you the numbers. The labors are still few. You find someone that makes disciples, latch on to them. They're few they're an endangered species.
The disciples had to be commissioned though. They they had to be commissioned. They had to be told what to do. I I, you know, I don't think they really understood after the resurrection. They they went back to fishing.
They they were like, was it over? It was that it? If we just the the Messiah came and paid for sin. Was that all we're here to do? So they had to be told really clearly what what's next.
And he and in a lot of ways, Jesus was turning over the ministry now to them. And as he was doing that, he gives the great commission that we read, but within it is a lot of encouragement. So I'm gonna walk us back through the great commission because I want you what I want you to see is there are 4 what are known as the 4 alls in the great commission. Four alls. And the first one is he says, remember, I have all authority.
But he's giving his authority now to them to do the ministry. Ephesians 4 puts it like this when it talks about the church. It says he, Jesus, gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and shepherds and teachers. So in other words, Jesus is assigned different levels of authority. There are people who are in full time ministry and called to do that as a professional.
But look what he says next. Why are they there? He says Jesus has given these kind of teachers and prophets to equip the saints, that's you and me, for the work of the ministry. Who is it that actually does the work in the ministry? It's the saints.
It's you and me. The professionals are just there full time to help equip you to do the work. And it says, for the building up of the body until we are all attained unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure and stature of fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children. You wanna grow in your faith. Growth follows vision.
And Jesus is passing on this ministry to us, to the saints. The ministry is for you. You know, you wonder why some of these families from Kansas, Oklahoma have big families. It's because there's more hands to help do the work. I I did a wedding for 2 of our friends, and they're both from big families.
There's literally, like, a 120 cousins between the 2 of them. I I went to I this is no lie. I went to church parking lot, and there was a school bus because one of the families had to drive a school bus down from Kansas. You thought a minivan was, like, embarrassing. Like, the family progression goes minivan, sprinter van, school bus, and then imperial star destroyer.
Okay? So one of my best friends became one of these, like, big family people. It's awesome. But I was like, how do you do it? They had, like, 5 and then they wanted to adopt 1, which that's not too big.
But I'm still I was like, bro, you're moving to sprinter. And he's like, I know. We're moving to sprinter level. I was like, but how do you do it? You know, like, just how do you do it?
Because they had so many young ones. He goes, well, what happens is we have an oldest that we pair with the youngest. They kind of it's like the buddy system. The oldest has authority and responsibility to take care of 1 of the youngest, And he then he said this. He goes, you know, when our family grows out, somebody's gotta grow up.
As our family grows out, somebody has to grow up and have more responsibility. Listen, Sandals Church. We have grown out. Praise God. As a church, God has blessed us, and we've grown, and our numbers keep growing.
But as the church has grown out, we need some of you to grow up and to take responsibility to not just have a Paul in your life, but to say, man, who's the Timothy? Who's the person that I'm discipling? Do you notice who does ministry in Ephesians? It's you and me to equip the saints. You know, I I know people say, hey, pastor Claude or, you know, they use that term as a term of honor.
But do you know the way the Bible speaks about us is that we're all in the ministry. We are all priests. Exodus, in the very beginning of the Bible, God says, I'm gonna call my people and you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We're all called to the ministry. We're all to be equipped to do the work of ministry, to make disciples.
That's what Jesus left us here to do. And when you're missing, man, we feel it. Have you ever hurt, like, a part of your body that you didn't think was that important? You know, you break a pinky or stub your toe. I've broken my collarbone twice, And, you know, you think these little, like, bones that don't mean that much, and then you try to walk or put on a shirt with a broken collarbone, and you realize, man, I need those parts.
Ephesians 4 says this, we speak the truth in love growing in every way more and more like Christ who he's the head of a body. The church is his body, and this is what it says. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly as each part does its own special work. You have a special work to do in the body, but listen, it says, and it helps the other parts grow. Part of your work in the body of Christ is not just for you to grow, but it's to turn around and help the other weaker parts of the body become strong so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
When you're missing, we all limp along. We need you to to have a disciple behind you. The body needs you. And I I know that terrifies some of you. You go, man, I I don't feel ready.
Like, when would I feel ready for that? How do I honestly, the people who think they're, like, overly ready, those are the people that make me nervous, But I get it. Like, I know what it feels like to not feel ready for something. Oh my gosh. A couple years ago, I made a a bad decision.
Like, it was a quick decision, emotional. I I don't even know how it happened. I volunteered to lead, coach a flag football team for 10 year olds. Okay? Everybody makes mistakes.
I was I was vulnerable and weak. Nobody would say yes. Like, all these dads are looking around and I finally was like and somehow, dude, I drove home like, how did I become the coach of these I don't even watch football, you know? So I'm like googling plays and terms. I mean, it was bad.
We we started we were losing games so bad. And I thought, oh, dude, the parents are gonna beat me, like, they're gonna hate me. This wasn't a Christian league, you know, so they would tell you. And I'm like, I'm gonna get beat up. And then something really cool happened.
These 2 Christian guys, these 2 dads on my team, and they they came along to help me, but they were like ringers. Okay? One of them, he runs, like, all of the intramural sports for this organization for, like, years. I mean, he knows more rules than anybody. He has all the equipment and stuff we could ever need.
Other dude is, like, the most athletic coach guy. He's coached everything. And you know what? They came alongside me. They didn't do it for me, but, man, they helped me.
And sometimes they went on the field and explained the rules very strongly to the refs because one guy, he knew them better than anybody. They made me look good. You know what I mean? And they didn't let me fail. And what I realized is, you know why those guys helped me?
It's because it was their kids. It was their boys on the team. And I realized, man, no dad is gonna sit by and watch his boys lose when he has power to help. Listen. When you say yes to trying to disciple people, you get help from God because you're working with his children.
You're working with his family. So I want you to write this down. Number 2, this is what I found, is that as I try to help disciple others, God helps me become ready. It's this weird paradox that instead of focusing out so much on am I ready, am I ready, when you start doing it, man, god meets you with his power, his resources. You got a ringer on your team ready to help you.
2nd Corinthians 3 says this, such confidence we have through Christ before God, not that we are competent in ourselves. You know who's writing this? The apostle Paul. He says, guess what? Surprise.
We're not competent. Welcome to the un incompetent team. We are not incompetent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves. He says, but our competence comes from God, and he's made us competent as a minister of a new covenant. You got a ringer on your team who has all the power, all wisdom, all resources, and he's on your side.
And and trying to make disciples, you know what it'll do? It will drive you to God, and it will drive him to you. It's beautiful. Even Timothy, as Paul discipled Timothy, there was a point where Paul began to turn over ministry to Timothy, and I know he felt inadequate. You know why?
Because of the scripture we have where Paul has to encourage him. You don't you know, he was young. He was leading a church. You don't think he felt inadequate for that? So look what Paul says in 1st Timothy 4.
Says, Timothy, don't let anybody look down on you because you're young. Maybe you're young in the faith. Maybe it's something else, but he's saying, don't let anybody look down on you, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. You can set an example. He doesn't say teach a seminary class.
He doesn't say explain the Trinity. He just says set an example with your life. Much of discipleship, I found, is just life on life. Just doing life with somebody else in the faith. Driving in traffic with another Christian, let them watch your life.
Being married in real life, in front of people, that's discipleship. And if you can do that, if you're growing, you can disciple somebody else. Philippians 4 says this, Paul says, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, just practice those things, and the God of peace will be with you. I've learned that, you know what, you're never gonna feel ready. You need to change that language to, man, I'm ready enough.
I'm ready enough. Have you been discipled by somebody else? Then you're ready enough. Jesus gave us authority, but you know what else? He gives us a plan, and his plan works.
He says go and make disciples of all the nations. All the nations. I used to listen to that. I said, that's impossible. Right?
Let's be honest. That's impossible. We used to take every summer, we had about 30, 40 college students come out for our ministry training. We'd take them to a Dodgers game, you know, and just pray we'd all be safe. But, and I remember one time we went and there's this kid from Arkansas.
There's a whole bunch of U of A guys, but Rob wanted to start the wave. And so Rob started standing up, like, yelling 1, 2, 3, like, standing up all by himself for, like, 10 minutes, man. He's just screaming. You know, there's 50,000 people, you know, And it was a little embarrassing. Like, I got kinda, like, secondhand embarrassment.
I'm like, this is impossible, Rob. You know? You're you're embarrassing our group. I went to get, like, a dodger dog. I'm like, I'm gonna I'll come back later when this is over.
And I came back I literally come back, like, 10 minutes later, And the whole stadium, right, is doing the way like, it had just come around, and our our whole group is, like, roaring. I didn't I thought somebody hit a grand slam, like, I didn't know what happened. And I sit down, I'm like, babe, how did he do it? You know? Do you have, like, a flare gun or what?
Like, how did he do it? And she said, well, he actually he lost his voice at one point. And he and it was you know, the 50,000 was impossible, but the guys next to him weren't. And he started rallying the other U of A dudes, and they started taking over standing with him. And then pretty soon, like, the whole row and our whole group started doing it.
And then our whole section started doing it. And then the whole side of the stadium and and at one point, it just became unstoppable. And he said she said, you know what? He couldn't reach 50,000, but he could reach the person next to him. And it filled the stadium, filled it.
Jesus's method works. Multiplication works. He multiplied. Paul multiplied. And this is what he says to Timothy, the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, you don't gotta shout it on Twitter.
That's impossible. You don't gotta shout it on online. That's impossible, but you can pass it on to faithful, reliable people who will be able to teach others also, and multiplication works. Jesus' plan works. If you multiplied your life for just 33 years, if you made disciples for just 33 years, the number becomes so big it would fill the world.
It would fill the world, 8,500,000,000 people. What what I think is amazing is that even the son of God did not rely on his power, like his divine power to reach the world. He relied on the power of multiplication through you and me, that we get to be a part of this. Will you go, Claude? I I wouldn't know what to teach.
Right? Like, I I don't know the Bible that well, or I don't, you know, have this degree. Jesus gives us authority. He gives us a plan. You know what else he gives us?
His answers. They're written for us. He says this, teach them to obey all that I've commanded you. That's all you gotta know. You just keep going back to the Bible.
And you guys have kids that are young. Oh my gosh. You think you're smart until you hang out with, like, a 4 year old or 5 year old for a little bit, and they start asking you all these questions. Like, dad, how does a magnet work? You're like, you know, is a Venus flytrap a plant or an animal?
You know, explain a black hole. You're like, will you please just go break something? You know what I mean? Just anything. No more questions.
But I remember with our kids, they would ask us all these questions, and we started just saying, you know what? Well, man, in the bible, this is what we know. Or or there's a story of the bible that sounds like what you're asking. And we just kept leading them back to the bible. You know what?
Eventually, you know what happened? They would just skip us. That's what we want. We don't want them just to skip past us and realize all the answers to life are in the Bible. Listen.
If you're a Christian and you're not reading the Bible and if you haven't read through the Bible, hell is laughing at you right now because all the answers to life are in God's word. 2nd Timothy 316 says this, scripture all scripture is God breathed. What that means is that even though men wrote it, God inspired them. We believe it's perfect, and it was inspired by the Holy Spirit so that we have everything we need. All scripture is God breathe, and it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, and righteousness so that the servant of God, that's us, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
You have everything you need. You're thoroughly equipped. Most discipleship is just taking people by the hand with their problems and leading them to God's word for answers and to prayer for God's power to change. That's all it is. That's all discipleship is.
What can I possibly add to that? God gives us something else. Jesus says the end of this great commission gives us the best thing, his spirit. Says I behold, I am with you always. The final all is that he's with us all the time.
He's given us all authority. He's given us the bible, the holy spirit, plus nothing. Because you don't need anything like, what could you possibly add to that? What training in your our minds, you know, or what the you know, what what in our minds do we think we could add before we feel ready to make disciples? You have everything you need.
Number 3 is this, God gives me all I need to multiply my life. He's given us all we need. You can do it. John 155 says this, Jesus says, I'm the vine. He's alive.
He's growing. He's doing things. You're just the branches that I'm using. You see that picture? I'm the vine.
You're the branches. And it whoever abides in me and I in him, he's gonna bear much fruit. In other words, they're gonna multiply. Living things multiply. He says, but apart from me, you can do nothing.
Living things bear fruit. You and I are the branch in history. And this vine, this living thing that God is doing, it's been going for a long time. I wanna retell as we kinda close this story or this series on discipleship. I wanna retell you a story because I wanna trace this line for you.
And and you've heard this story before because it starts in the beginning. God created everything. He created Adam and Eve perfect. He loved them, but they sinned. And God's story could have been over right there.
It could have been over right there, but God said, I'm not done with my story. I'm gonna send someone, a messiah who's gonna broke or who's gonna fix what you broke. And then all through this story, we see men and women try to follow God. Some do better than others. Some rebel against him, but God doesn't finish telling his story through them.
They serve him in their generation. At the end of the old testament, we find God's people under judgment and then 400 years of silence. And you gotta wonder, man, has God done? Like, was that it? But God wasn't done with this story.
Stars literally align in the universe to point to a child who's born king. The Messiah who's rejected and killed. And for a Friday and a Saturday, the whole world wonders. Is God done with this story? But after his resurrection, a 120 people just like us become 5,000.
Roman tries to squash these dandelions and makes another 1,000. And this movement keeps going. The Bible is canonized. Martin Luther reforms the church. William Carey takes the gospel to India.
Hudson Taylor takes the gospel to China. Then the revivals of America, the great awakening, and the Jesus movement reach somebody named Chuck Smith. And the and Greg Laurie comes into the story, and there's a harvest crusade. And then a guy named Matthew Stephen Brown walks in and starts a church in his living room of 5 people, and it multiplies. It multiplies.
And then somewhere in that story, you've walked in. You've walked in. And I just wanna ask you. If there is a line like that before you, where is the line after you? If God has a line like that in history before me, why isn't there a line after me?
But listen, God's not done with this story. That's the good news. We all can be discipled by a Paul. We can help you find a Paul, but God wants all of us to turn around. He wants to equip us to disciple others.
Who's your Paul? Who's your Timothy? Sandals can help you with those things because the same God, the same power, the same authority, with the same plan, who gives the same spirit is with you and me, and he's calling us now to multiply that it might fill the world. Can we pray that together? Let's pray.
God, we know that today the harvest is still plentiful, but the workers the workers are still few. You've commissioned us to be disciple makers in the world. God, would you bring discipleship back off the endangered species list of the church Lord, revive it. God we look at our life and sometimes we see ourselves as a seed, but God you see the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. God you see the potential in our life when we multiply.
God, there was a moment for us when we said yes to Jesus, we said yes to your mercy and we joined into this story and I pray that we would return now back to maybe another moment like that where we say yes to your mission and joining you in what you're doing in the world. God you wanna use us to impact others. And God would you help us take up this narrow road that brings unstoppable change in the world as we multiply. And we pray all these things in Jesus name, amen.