The Gathering Surf City

You know,

two times a year people show
up for church in mass,

right? That's September when the
kids go back to school because

everybody's getting
back on schedule.

And January when everybody's
making their revolutions.

Okay, so there you go.

So we need some parking team folks,

if you can check out the
Next Steps area.

And all this year,

I want everybody that gathers at least
some point in the next year to

check out Next steps,

whether it's at the counter out there
or by tapping the chair or getting

on the webpage or the
app or whatever.

Check out Next Steps and find out all
the things that are going on and

get plugged into these things.

Because today's message
is really about that.

It's about the fact that we
are the body of Christ.

We call ourselves the gathering.

And we gather for the
purpose of worship.

We gather for the purpose of,

of all that worship means,

which is prayer,

Bible study,

fellowship, loving each other,

loving Jesus together,

all of the things that the body of Christ
is supposed to be in this world

that God has provided for us.

One other announcement though
is that time change,

and I don't mean daylight
saving times,

but gathering worship time change
takes place in February.

We will shift to an 8:00,

9:30, 11:00 time frame.

So if you're a part
of this gathering,

come 10 minutes early.

If you're part of the
next gathering,

come five minutes late.

If you're part of the
next gathering,

it's going to take you 20 minutes.

Alright.

But anyway,

hopefully this will allow us to get parking
better adjusted and filling

and unfilling children's classrooms and
youth stuff and all those kind of

things. Just gives us some
transition time.

Alright, so let me ask
this question.

Who is the author of
Relationship Jesus?

Sort of God.

Thank you.

You got one third of it right.

No, I'm just kidding.

But God is the author
of relationship.

God created Adam.

And the implication of Genesis is that
God spent the cool of the day with

Adam in the garden.

And he says this,

this creation is for you
to have dominion over.

And there's trees everywhere
and food everywhere.

But don't eat that one,

because if you do,

you'll die.

And as long as you obey,

you'll be fine.

Well, Adam failed,

right? Adam's the one
that inaugurated,

initiated the failure of mankind's
relationship with God.

And therefore sin interrupts
our relationship with God.

And so God has provided for our relationship
with him through the shed

blood of Jesus Christ.

We have salvation,

redemption, relationship with God.

Because Christ died on the cross,

because our sins are
Forgiven right now.

I love it that you're
here this morning.

I'm excited about it.

I wasn't here last week,

obviously. And as we end the year,

you know,

everybody's things are changing.

And for some people,

things change a lot,

and some people,

things change a little.

And I'm looking at the new year.

And usually in January,

I preach a message on what I refer to
as our covenant relationship that

God has initiated,

established a covenant with us.

Jeremiah talks about it being
the new covenant.

We saw it in Hebrews as we were
studying the new covenant.

And so God has given us this
covenant relationship.

And I want to tell you that
covenant is relationship.

You know,

if you're going to covenant
together,

you're establishing relationship
with one another.

So then the question is,

what is our relationship together
as the gathering?

You know,

if we're going to gather together
for the purpose of worship,

we can say yes,

because we know Jesus,

because we walk with Jesus,

because we have this relationship
with Jesus.

But what's our relationship
with each other?

Right. How.

How many of you know anybody that attends
the 1040 worship gathering?

Some of,

you know,

some of them.

Right, right.

Well, guess what?

They're your family.

They're your brothers and sisters.

See, we all gather as the body
of Christ in this place,

and we are in relationship together with
one another as the family of God

in this community.

Right. So when people talk
about the gathering,

I didn't realize that people do,

but, you know,

and folks say,

and particularly over this last
little season of things,

people will introduce me.

And they go,

yeah, Bobby's the pastor
at the gathering.

And they go,

oh, right.

And I go,

is that a good O or a bad O?

You know,

but my point is,

the gathering is a body.

It's the body of Christ
in this place.

And so there are some expectations
within the body of Christ,

but there are some expectations
of the body of Christ,

right? I mean,

there's some things that we represent
in the world around us.

There's some things that
God longs to see in us.

For instance,

God wants the world to.

To see us not eating from the tree,

right? That's the sin part of it,

right? God wants the world to see
righteousness among his people.

God wants the world to see holiness practiced
within the body of Christ.

So when I talk about
this relationship,

God's the author of it.

God's invited us and made a way for
us to have a relationship with him

first and foremost.

Now, what's our relationship
together?

Well, the covenant Sunday kind of represents
what we refer to as covenant

relationship. Because when
I first came here,

there were a lot of folks who
attended occasionally,

right?

You know,

they'd show up and they'd
be here for vacation,

or they'd be here certain period of
the year and that kind of thing.

And they'd want to be involved.

But there were some restrictions
to being involved.

And so we kind of established this
idea of a covenant relationship.

There are some people who
live in this community,

and by and large,

a lot of them have to do with the military
or the base or something like

that.

And they want to be a part of what
God's doing in this place.

But guess what?

They're not going to move their membership
from Mama's church or

something like that.

So we created this covenant relationship
whereby if you agree,

if you want to be a part of
what God's doing here,

you can,

you can jump right in the deep end of
all that God's doing in this place.

And we want you to.

That's why the whole next
step's idea was,

all right,

how do I get in the deep water?

How do I get involved in
what God's doing here?

How can I connect with other people,

right? Other than that?

Three minutes,

we give you to turn around and
shake your neighbor's hand.

See? So I'm going to share with you
the four points of the covenant

relationship. And Kyle,

this morning,

y'all is preaching up in Bergaw
at Mission Baptist for now.

And we'll be rotating in worship leadership
and pastors up there over the

next few weeks and months.

And I'm meeting with the elders tonight
to talk about the future and that

kind of thing.

And so I'm really excited about the
fact that I believe that what we

enjoy as the gathering,

God actually has a plan
for scattering.

Alright, so if you live somewhere
between here and Burgo,

go to Burgo,

right? You can find
parking and seats.

But the first point of the
gathering relationship,

and I want to read from
Romans chapter 15,

5 and 6,

because we're not there yet
in our study of Romans,

which we begin next week,

by the way,

it reads this.

May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to live in such

harmony with one another in
accord with Christ Jesus,

that together you may with one voice
glorify the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ.

Is that not a powerful two
verses right there?

That when we speak as
one voice to a lost,

dead, dying,

dark world out there,

that we glorify God together,

we come together as one
to bring glory to God,

to exalt his name so the first point
of the Gathering covenant is I will

protect the unity,

the oneness of the Gathering.

I will protect you.

Here you go.

Let's pick somebody.

Tom. Alright,

so we run out into the street somewhere
and somebody decides they want to

say something bad about tomorrow
defending Tom.

Cause he's my brother,

I'm not going to join
with him and go,

yeah, he really likes race cars too
much and particularly Dodge,

right?

No, I'm not going to join with the
world to attack my brother.

You see what I mean?

That's part of the unity
of the gathering.

Now. Yeah,

you can get out there and say somebody
says something bad about the

Gathering, defend that.

But no,

that's not what it's talking about.

What it's talking about is we're
going to defend each other.

You see,

we're going to defend one another,

we're going to help one another.

So when we see this,

we're going to protect the unity of
gathering by acting in love toward

each other,

by refusing to gossip,

and by following the leaders,

the leadership of the gathering that
God's provided for shepherds.

So when we look at this covenant
is relationship,

the first point of the covenant relationship
is we're family and we're

going to defend each other.

We're going to take an active part in
standing up for one another and

being a benefit and assist,

helping one another,

bearing one another's burdens.

You see,

that's what the body of Christ is supposed
to look like to a lost and

dying world.

Right? And yet,

you know,

you know me,

most of you do anyway.

A lot of what the world sees
is a fight in church.

Did y'all know that a lot of what the
world sees is not love within the

body of Christ,

but animosity.

And so that's not us.

We're not going to do that.

Right?

Okay.

Second point of the gathering
covenant,

or the covenant that
God's called us to,

I think these are four points that apply
to all of the body of Christ.

I think if we consider what
God gave us in family,

it certainly assumed that I'm
going to defend my family.

And if we are the family of God,

with Christ as the head
and God as our father,

then we're supposed to
defend each other.

Second thing is I'm going to share the
responsibility of the gathering.

I'm going to share the responsibility
that we have in the body of Christ.

What does that mean?

I'm not just a spectator.

Okay, you know what,

I like Clemson football,

but they've never invited
me down on the Field,

they never said,

here, put these pads on.

Go hit that guy that's twice
as big as you are.

Nobody ever did that
for me in football.

Never. Not even in Little league.

And the one time they did,

I quit.

I was a small fellow,

right? But in the body of Christ,

we have a responsibility toward each other
and for each other and for the

testimony and who we are
in the world around us.

So how are we going to share the responsibility
of this gathering?

Let me share these verses
with you first,

Thessalonians. As Paul is writing to
the church that's in Thessalonica,

he says this.

We give thanks to God
always for you,

constantly mentioning
you in our prayers.

And I want everybody put your
head on a swivel a minute.

Ready? Everybody do this.

Exercise your,

exercise your head.

Now I want y'all to.

As you swivel,

alright?

Everybody look that way.

I'm looking right.

Y'all look left.

Now as you swivel your head back,

left, stop on a person in the room.

Anybody just pick a
person in the room.

Take, take a half a second or a couple
of seconds and pray for them right

now. Pray for them.

That's what Paul said.

Pray for them.

We give thanks to God always for all
of you constantly mentioning you in

our prayers.

How about that?

Pray for each other,

folks. Pick somebody out
and just pray for them,

right? I mean,

I can stand up here and I can
call a bunch of you by name,

just say yup and just pray for them.

Luke 14:23 says.

And the Master said to the servant,

go out.

Now, this is one of the parables of Jesus
talking about the wedding party

of heaven,

right? Go out to the highways and hedges
and compel people to come in

that my house may be filled.

Now, I want to give y'all
some commendation.

Y'all do a good job at this.

Let's just share Christmas Eve
as a particular point,

right? How many of you were
here Christmas Eve?

How many of you got here early
enough to get a seat?

Thank you very much.

You see,

I think it's great that we can go out
into the community in an effort of

being excited about what God's doing and
invite people to come be excited

with us to come to the house,

this worship center,

and celebrate and sing and,

and hug each other and just show
people the love of God,

you see,

Go and bring people in,

fill my house up.

And then Romans 15,

verse 7,

which is just beyond verse 6
that I read a minute ago,

therefore, now this is what it says.

I'll go back and read 5 and 6,

because that's point one.

May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to live in such

harmony with one another in
accord with Christ Jesus,

that together you may with one voice
glorify the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore welcome one another as Christ
has welcomed you for the glory of

God, Right?

Welcome each other when we turn you loose
for the chaos that is greeting

time, man.

Go welcome somebody.

They may say,

I've been here longer than you,

so what?

Welcome them.

I tell folks all the time,

you just act like you've been here.

Nobody will know the difference.

You see what I mean?

So we're supposed to just wrap people
up as they come in the door,

right? I mean,

there's some people I love.

I don't mind hugging anybody,

right?

I'll hug you.

And what's funny is there are
those people who don't,

right? And you always know those people
because when you reach out to

shake. This is a pastor's
manipulation.

You ready?

Come here,

Tom. Let's show them I'm
still in camera,

right? I grab your hand,

this is what I'm doing.

And the minute I start to tug,

you know,

the non huggers go like that.

You see?

See, we're supposed to show
one another love.

Not just this indifference or this,

oh, yeah,

I've seen you sit over here before,

I'm glad to see you again
this week kind of thing.

We're supposed to love people
as they walk in the door.

Because you know what?

Out in the world,

out there,

people don't love each other.

They don't tell you a story because
I got lots of them.

After the eighth grade,

Eli went to a Christian school.

He'd been in public school from kindergarten
up through the eighth grade

or through half of the eighth grade.

And then we took him out and put
him in a Christian school and.

And Eli loved to play soccer.

See, he was a little like
me at one time.

Now he's bigger than
me and that's okay.

But he tried basketball.

Didn't work.

He tried T ball,

it was boring.

And then he tried soccer.

And he was fast.

Good gracious,

that kid was fast.

He'd be the fastest
one on the field.

He'd fly.

And I remember in kindergarten,

soccer, there was a whole
huddle of them.

You know how a bunch of little kindergartners
got the ball in the middle

of them,

they all kicking each other
and this sort of thing.

Well, Eli pile drive into that mess and
came out the other side with the

ball and went to the Goal.

Right? So he goes to private
school up in Jacksonville,

up there.

And he's really nervous in
August of that year,

his ninth grade year.

And he goes in.

He doesn't know how they're going to
relate to him and all that sort of

thing. And it's a Christian school
that actually practiced Christian

relationship. And when he walked in,

they said,

oh, hey,

you're new.

And he was like,

yeah. They're like,

man, we're glad you're here.

We're glad you're here
to play soccer.

We're glad you're here for school.

And he came home that
day and he went.

They talked to me.

See, the world doesn't do that,

folks. Right?

The world is very skeptical of one another
and very cynical about each

other. And so we doubt or the world
tries to use one another for their

own benefit.

In the body of Christ,

we're just supposed to
love each other.

That's what it's talking about.

Third point is,

I will serve the ministry
of the gathering.

That is really the representation
of what God's called us to do,

to be a part of what God's called
us to be a part of.

And how do we do that?

Here you go,

from First Peter,

chapter 4,

verse 10 says,

as each has received a gift.

Did you bring yours this morning?

Just checking.

As each has received a gift,

use it to serve one another as good
stewards of God's varied grace.

So the first point of that is I
need to know what my gift is.

What is it God's entrusted to
you for his kingdom's sake?

Right? Maybe you just
got a great smile.

We had a great big old choir at First
Baptist Church in Beaufort,

Georgia, Right?

And Wayne used to say that we
have singers and smilers.

There were people who wanted to be a
part of the choir because it was a

cool choir and some of them could really
sing and some of them really

couldn't. He said,

that's the smiling row.

Your job's to smile,

right? Maybe your gift is just smiling
or joy or hospitality.

Maybe your gift is withstanding cold.

And we need you on the parking
team this morning,

okay? Discover your gift,

the talents that God's poured into
you by being equipped to serve as

needed within the body,

by the pastors,

the teachers,

the ministries of this gathering.

And then this is probably
the starting point,

is by developing a servant's heart,

are you willing to give
of yourself time,

energy, talents?

Are you willing to give?

Now, I don't know who you picked out
to pray for a few minutes ago,

but what Are you willing to give that
person for the glory of God in the

kingdom?

See, by developing a servant's heart in
the fourth point of the gathering

covenant relationship
is just simply this.

I will support the testimony of the
gathering of the body of Christ.

And this is the one that
goes back to Hebrews.

And since we spent all
last year in Hebrews,

I'm sure you all got this memorized.

Hebrews 10,

23, 25.

And I've only given them verse 25.

But this is where it starts.

It says,

let us hold on to the confession
of our hope without wavering,

since he who promised is faithful.

And let us watch out for one another
to provoke love and good works,

not neglecting to gather together as
some are in the habit of doing,

but encouraging each other.

And all the more as you see
the day approaching.

I'm kind of hard on what I often
call church and churchianity,

right? I grew up in it,

man, I tell y'all,

I'm 62.

I've been in church 62 years
and nine months.

I met a lady at Mom's funeral Wednesday
who is the pianist at the church

my parents took me to when
I was first born,

Harris Baptist Church,

where I was a mission friend.

Remember that?

And this lady came up,

she says,

I'm the pianist at Harris
Baptist Church.

And I went,

oh, I was a sunbeam in that church.

And she kind of grinned because she
knew what I was talking about,

right? But here's the truth of it,

folks. When we consider
our testimony,

does our testimony,

the world support,

highlight, enhance the testimony
of the body of Christ?

Do people look at us?

You want me to get more,

more specific?

Do people look at you and go,

you must know Jesus?

Is that your testimony?

Is that what people see in you?

Oh, man,

you must know Jesus.

How do we support the testimony
of this body?

By attending faithfully,

by living a godly life,

by giving regularly.

And. Yeah,

that's one of those times
where I mentioned,

yeah, your time,

your energy,

your talent,

what God's provided for you by giving
of yourself for the kingdom of God,

the ministry that God's called
you to be a part of.

So then I finish today's message
with this question.

Why are you here?

I mean,

I love it that you're here.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not telling you to leave and I'm
not telling you I don't want to see

you back next week.

Matter of fact,

I'm going to mention Emily and Sherry
over there because this is the

first time they've been
in the community now,

again, for a while.

Again, I say that,

but they came from Pisgah Forest
where I pastored before,

right? They were members of Pisgah
Forest Baptist Church.

And Sherry took care of Eli when he
was little and Emily was a little

young girl back there and
all that sort of thing.

And they've had some real life changes
over the last several years.

And they decided to relocate and
they decided to come here.

Now, I don't know that the gathering
is the main reason for relocating

here, but they walked up to
me this morning and said,

hey. And I went,

ah, just to hug their necks.

That's Emily and Sherry over there.

Raise your hands.

Go ahead and tell them they're here.

Now, here's what I'm
going to tell you.

This is what I love about it,

because when they came in,

I said,

y'all not going to guess who's
here this weekend.

They said,

who? I said,

ronnie and Debbie English.

Ronnie and Debbie English is another
couple from up at Pisgah Forest who

come here regularly and come and worship
with us regularly when they come

down on vacation.

They'll be here later
in the morning.

Folks, the body of Christ is
not just in this room.

The body of Christ extends
out into the community.

And when the community,

when the world,

the lost world,

sees how the body of Christ
loves each other,

that is the main opportunity for us
to share the testimony and the

witness of Christ.

Does your testimony point
people to Jesus?

See that man?

Covenant relationship.

God has authored it.

And if you're in this
room right now,

I'm going to go ahead and tell you
God has offered it to you.

Relationship with him and relationship
with each other.

Okay, so there is a covenant card.

We don't really ask you to sign
it and turn it in anymore,

but we're going to be producing those
and making those available to you

that have all of my outline this morning
is just simply a copy of the

covenant card.

That's it.

Because we covenant with each other,

we covenant with God,

and we covenant with each other to be
the body of Christ in this place

and wherever we are.

So y'all know my next line,

right? It all starts with Jesus.

If you don't know Jesus,

you don't have that relationship.

If you've never trusted Jesus as Lord
and Savior and received the

redemption and salvation
that God has offered,

you need that more than you
need anything else.

I'm just going to go
ahead and tell you,

you're not going to know the
peace that Christ gives.

You're not going to know the community
of relationship and fellowship

with God and with each other
that God offers in Christ.

You need Jesus.

And if you got Jesus,

you know that.

That you need him.

All right,

I will tell you this,

you know,

15 years later,

I love this gathering.

I love being able to stand up
and share the word of God.

I love,

I love it that when I walked
in this morning,

boy, everybody wanted to hug me and share
their prayers for me and their

concern for me.

But I'm going to tell
y'all something.

You know what?

Even up until the last I knew
where mom was headed.

I know where she is.

I know that her worship as
good as our worship is,

y'all, her worship this Sunday
morning was better than ours.

Alright, I'm okay.

This year is going to
be a good year,

y'all. It's going to be exciting to
see what God does in our midst.

All right?

If you don't know Jesus,

we're going to give you an
opportunity to know him.

If you need somebody to
share with you Christ,

and we've got folks here who will sit
down and talk with you about Jesus.

Okay? Maybe you want to be
a part of the gathering.

You know,

kind of the whole membership thing,

which goes kind of one step beyond
the covenant relationship idea,

actually making your membership
a part of this.

You can do that,

too.

All you got to do is
come down and say,

I want to be a member.

And then we'll fill out a little
card and we'll put you in.

Put you in that really old book
that we have in the office.

You know that book,

don't you,

Amanda? It's a really old book.

Anyway, be a part of what
God's doing this year,

y'all. You can't imagine,

just can't imagine what
God wants to do.

Let's pray.

God, thank you for today.

Thank you for your love.

And thank you,

God, that you have made us a part of
something that is way beyond us.

God, you've loved us.

You've shown us that love in Christ.

God, you've wrapped us up with
a family and a body whereby,

God, we can love you together.

And then we get to love each other and
to bring you glory because of our

love for each other as
the body of Christ.

So, God,

today we celebrate.

We celebrate a new year.

Yeah, we celebrate a Sunday.

But God,

again, we just celebrate being
part of your family.

So God help us to love each other
like he called us to do.

And God first and foremost,

help us to love you back.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.