The Gathering Surf City

Well, it is Memorial Day weekend,

and I've been riding by churches and
places and seeing the encouragement

to a happy Memorial day.

And I have to be honest,

I look at that and I go,

that's troubling for us.

We can be happy in our liberty and in
our freedom and in our opportunity

and privilege to worship and to gather
and to celebrate all that God has

provided for us as a nation,

as a people,

as a body of Christ.

And yet for those families that
have lost loved ones,

that men and women who have
given their lives,

yes. For our country,

for our nation.

But I have had the privilege of pastoring
outside two military bases.

One was Aberdeen proving
ground up in Maryland,

and I was in Edgewood
for about six years,

and I loved it.

I mean,

it's a.

Military communities are
great to pastor in,

to be honest.

And then when we moved here,

found the same kind of reception
and opportunity and all that.

And yet it becomes really personal for
us when we get to Memorial Day

because we can probably
all name names.

So I always say,

you know what?

We're gonna remember and celebrate
not just that they died for our

country, but that they died for us.

Right? Comes that personal
for us in this community?

All righty.

I'm gonna ask you to pray with me.

All right.

Father, we do thank you.

We thank you and praise
you that you provide.

You are our provider.

You provide in all things.

And so,

God, we thank you,

yes. For this community and the opportunity
we have to worship with those

who. Yeah,

they sign their name,

they enlist.

They know that the danger's there,

and yet they do it,

and they do it for me,

for us,

for our country.

And so,

God, we thank you for the
privilege we have.

And, God,

we just lift up those families that have
lost loved ones for those whose

fathers and mothers and
sons and uncles,

cousins and brothers and sisters.

And, God,

we just pray,

God, that on this particular
weekend,

God, that we'd honor them
by remembering.

And so,

God, we thank you for the opportunity
that we have to remember those.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. Let's remember another thing.

Bill and Ray,

raise your hand back there today.

They've been married 62 years.

They've been married longer
than Lenora's been alive,

because today's Lenora's birthday.

So we're gonna sing to her.

Happy birthday to.

Happy birthday to you
happy birthday.

God bless you.

Happy birthday to you all right.

Yay.

Did he put a candle in your
eggs this morning?

I don't know.

All right,

awesome. Michael,

make your way down here,

please. Come here.

See, David tried to clue you,

but you didn't know,

right? The only thing you need to be
keeping up with at this moment is

just the camera and my microphone.

So, hey,

we are celebrating baptism today,

probably about 1245.

We'll end up over at the ocean with
at least four people who have

professed Christ and want
to be baptized.

And.

And so we're going to celebrate
baptism this morning.

Well, it'll be afternoon
by that time.

And so we invite you to come on back
at 1245 and hang out with us,

and we're going to.

It's going to be much nicer
than Easter Sunday.

That day,

we baptized 13,

and I couldn't feel my legs.

So y'all come on back for baptism.

Y'all recognize Michael
from the video.

Y'all, Michael joined our staff.

Was it three years ago?

Something like close to it?

21. 21,

yeah. So almost three years ago,

he joined our staff.

And so he came in and led our choir and
built it up and did all kind of

fun stuff.

And he took the handoff from previous
people that had led it.

But he's been sitting up
there at that computer.

And so you guys have.

Y'all have heard me for the
last several weeks.

We need audio visual volunteers because
today's Michael's last Sunday on

staff, y'all.

He thinks marriage is important,

so he and Jenna are going to
get married next Saturday,

and we're going to do a nice,

quiet little wedding.

And he's going to come back on Sunday
and play softball for his

honeymoon. Right.

And then he's going to come back on
the 9th and play softball for the

tournament. Tournament.

Then he's going to come back on the 23rd
and help lead him sing on Sunday

night, the 23rd.

And we're just going to have a
reception for him that night.

So I want to encourage you all to be
a part of that because we're going

to miss him,

honestly. And we love him.

And he's kind of like a kid,

one of my kids,

because he's like the youngest
person on staff.

And so it's like,

yeah, I've had to beat
him a few times.

No, I'm just kidding.

So let's pray.

All right,

God, again,

we give you thanks for
all that you do.

And I thank you for Michael,

and I thank you for God,

his testimony,

and his faith.

And I thank you for what you've accomplished
in his life and what lies

ahead.

God, just celebrate with him,

God, that you're going
to do great things.

And, God,

it's not like an end it's
like a new beginning.

And he gets to serve you all
the days of his life.

And we thank you for him and
Jenna and their family,

and we pray for them in Jesus name.

Amen.

You want to talk?

No. No.

Okay. Go get back up
in the crow's nest,

then.

All right.

Today's a learning day.

Okay. Because it's interesting
to me.

Scott sang this song and led us in this
song about telling about Jesus

and how so much of what we get to do
on Sunday mornings is talk about

Jesus and talk about the Christ,

the anointed one,

the Messiah,

and God's provision for our salvation
and how we can look back through

scripture all the way to the book of
Genesis and see God's plan and

provision for redemption
for salvation.

In the book of Hebrews,

as I've been telling you,

is that book that sort of just
knits it all together for us.

It points to so much of what
is in the Old Testament by,

and gives explanation
for those things.

And yet what we see in the book
of Hebrews is God speaking.

God speaking through his son,

Jesus. Jesus is the Son.

Jesus is the heir of all things.

Jesus is creator,

he is sustainer.

He's the radiance of God's glory.

He is the exact expression of the.

Of the essence of God.

He's God,

God the son.

And so he is the king,

king of kings.

He is the high priest,

the highest priest,

and he is the new covenant.

Covenant that we get to celebrate.

And so today we're actually looking
back and we're gonna look at the

things that the writer of Hebrews
shares with us that really,

when you go back and look at it,

you go,

oh, wow,

that was pointing to Jesus.

Oh, wow.

That represents something
God's done.

Oh, wow.

That. And so when I think about
Christmas in particular,

and how the wise men looked
into the stars,

the magi,

and could see the birth of
Christ in the stars,

so much so that they
went to find him,

which was probably a multi year journey
from the persian empire to get to

where it was.

And so all of this kind of thing is
that God led people to Jesus.

God has led people to Jesus.

God leads us to Jesus.

And so each morning,

we get to get up and we just get,

in hindsight,

we get to go,

yes. Pay attention to Jesus.

Yes. We need to focus on Jesus.

Yes. Jesus is the point.

He is the real essence of our
identity as God's people.

All right,

so listen to these verses
in chapter nine,

verses one to ten.

Here we go.

Now, the first covenant also had
regulations for ministry.

And an earthly sanctuary for
a tabernacle was set up.

And in the first room,

which is called the holy place,

where the lamps stand,

the table,

the presentation loaves.

Behind the second curtain was a tent
called the most holy place.

And. And it had the gold altar of incense
and the ark of the covenant,

covered with gold on all sides,

in which was a gold jar
containing the manna,

Aaron's staff that budded.

And the tablets of the covenant and the
cherubim of glory were above the

ark, overshadowing the mercy seat.

And it's not possible to speak about
these things in detail right now.

With these things prepared
like this.

The priests enter the first room repeatedly
performing their ministry.

But the high priest alone
enters the second room,

and he does that only once a year,

and never without blood,

which he offers for himself and for
the sins the people had committed.

In ignorance,

the Holy Spirit was making it clear that
the way into the most holy place

had not yet been disclosed.

While the first tabernacle
was standing,

was still standing.

This is a symbol for the present time
during which gifts and sacrifices

are offered that cannot perfect
the worshiper's conscience.

They are physical regulations
and only deal with food,

drink and various washings imposed
until the time of the new order.

All right,

this is talking about
the old covenant,

the past covenant,

the covenant past and all that God
established in the old covenant,

the first covenant with the people,

the what it represents and what he accomplished
by giving them all these

things. We just have
to understand why.

Okay?

So let's pray.

God, help us understand why.

Help us to look at your word and understand
that all along you were

pointing us to Jesus.

God, you've let us know
that you had a plan.

You had a purpose all along.

God, help us to live your
plan for our lives.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. So he points out,

the writer of Hebrews,

after we've been through
all of that,

that I summarized a minute ago,

of the writer of Hebrews taking
all of the HebRew people,

Israel's history and bringing it all
together at a point in Jesus Christ

to point us to Jesus Christ,

to point the hearers of the book
of Hebrews to Jesus Christ.

A lot of the hearers of this book,

a lot of the people who received this
message were Hebrew people,

Jewish people,

who had trusted Jesus,

had recognized Jesus,

messiah, and under the persecution
of the first century,

they were all like,

let's just go back to the temple.

Let's just go back to
worship the old way.

Let's just leave this behind.

And the writer of Hebrews is going,

wait a minute.

All of this stuff pointed
you to Jesus.

Why would you turn back from what God
wanted you to see to begin with?

You see,

there's going to be some
parallels for us.

Why would we turn back to the things
of worship in the world around us?

Why would we reject,

why would we.

Now, these are why the warnings
are in the book of HeBRews.

This is why the writer of Hebrews
and God by inspiration says,

don't drift.

Right? Don't turn in unbelief.

Don't reject what God has done.

We're going to get to
the final warning,

which is just simply,

do not reject God.

You see?

Do not reject him.

Because God's people,

having been led out of the land of
Egypt and into the wilderness,

they got to the edge and God said,

go, take it.

And they said,

no, there's big people there.

If I was scared of big people,

I'd be scared all my life,

right? I mean,

think about it.

So they wandered for 40 years
because they basically said,

God's not big enough to
give us the land.

And so they all died
in the wilderness,

you see?

And it was in the wilderness that God
sort of gave them this identity of

worshipers, a people of
worship of people,

God's own people.

I will be their God.

They will be my people.

That's what he said.

The creator of the universe said,

this is my people.

And God gave them that identity
in the wilderness.

And they became known for that,

their worship,

their tabernacle.

Now, guess what?

Other nations had tabernacles.

Other nations had great big old pyramids
and stuff for worship,

right? But this tabernacle represented
something totally different.

And that's why he breaks
it all down for us.

Now, the first covenant also had regulations
for ministry in an earthly

sanctuary, for a tabernacle
was set up.

And in the first room,

which is called the holy place,

so there was this curtain wall.

Let's pretend ready?

Please don't hear me
saying this like,

this is a holy of holies up here,

so. Cause we don't want to
misrepresent things,

but there was a curtain that
went around the tabernacle.

And so you would enter into this,

this larger sort of courtyard
of the tabernacle.

And all of them,

all the jewish people
could go there.

But then there was the
Tabernacle itself.

And in the outer room of the tabernacle
was a holy place.

And only priests could go
into the holy place.

And in that holy place,

there was a.

There there was the
altar of incense.

Let's see.

Go by order.

Right here.

There was a lampstand.

Now, what's a lampstand?

We've seen it,

right. We try to sort of,

as Christians in the New Testament
and call us Protestants,

whatever you want to call us.

I don't know.

You know,

we'll bring out some of the stuff from
the Old Testament and kind of do

it some honor,

like that menorah thing
that's got the.

The six little things
going up like this.

And it's,

you know,

and we've seen.

We had one out here one time when
we were doing the Hebrew,

the jewish emphasis stuff
at Passover one time.

And so that lampstand was lit.

I mean,

they would see the light,

and the light represented the
seven days of God's creation.

And it was the light of God's creative
power that that was the reminder

to God's people.

And then there was the.

The table on the other side of the
room that had bread on it.

And they weren't Baptists,

but it was called the bread of the
presence or the show bread.

It was the representation of God's
provision for his people.

And so they were constantly
reminded of the creator,

God's power,

and God's provision,

particularly in the wilderness,

through the manna and
that sort of thing.

And then there was the altar of
incense in the holy place.

But I skipped over the outside part,

because outside,

look, you walk in the
tent area outside,

there's the brazen altar.

It's a big old thing.

And that's where it was
a slaughterhouse,

y'all.

That's where it was bloody.

It was.

This was not this.

You know,

I remember reflecting on this once upon
a time when my mom used to say

that I had to dress up for church,

right? I thought,

you know,

when they walked in there,

it was a bloody mess,

okay?

It wasn't clean and pristine.

It stank because they were burning the
flesh of bulls and sheep and goats

and doves and grains and oils and all
that kind of stuff just on that

altar of sacrifice.

And then between the
altar of sacrifice,

the brazen altar and the holy place,

the first temple,

the first room of the was
this bowl for washing.

They called it a laver.

And so it was representative of the fact
that you needed to be clean to

approach the presence of God.

So before you could enter,

before the priests could enter,

there was not only washing,

but there was ceremonial washing before
the priests could enter to do

their ministries.

And then there's the
altar of incense,

which was,

after all,

right, the lampstand on this side
to show bread on that side.

And if you're coming
in from that way,

lamp stands here,

show bread there.

And then right before
the holy of holies,

because this says the altar of incense
was inside the holy of holies.

Functionally, it was outdoors.

It was this idea that the priests every
day stocked the altar of incense.

They would take coal from the brazen altar
and they would bring it to the

altar of incense.

And the incense represented.

You ever walk past a candle shop?

I hate those things.

They stop me up.

I walk into one of them
yankee candle places,

I'm like,

I can't breathe right?

But what they do is they put this
in and the incense represents,

if you go back and read
revelation eight,

you start to see this
incense represents,

it's not the prayers of the people,

but it represents the prayers of the
people going up to God in heaven.

Okay? And then once a year the high
priest would enter the most holy

place.

And in the most holy place is
the ark of the covenant,

covered with gold on all sides with
a gold jar containing the manna.

Remember that,

in the wilderness to remind them of
God's provision and Aaron's staff

that budded because the priests had
all basically disobeyed God and

rejected God.

And yet the staff rebutted and made
and made a representation of God's

renewal and redemption.

And then the tablets of the covenant
that represented the law of God and

gave the people from Mount
Sinai God's law.

All right?

And so you enter into the most holy
place and only once a year,

and here you go.

You had to,

you had to do it just right.

You had to do it in the right way.

In the right,

the right.

You had to do things
in the right order.

And even then,

if you did it in the right order,

you had to.

The high priest had to make sure that
he dotted all his I's and crossed

all his t's and he did everything that
he was supposed to do in order to

enter into the holy of
holy places or else,

you know,

he'd be rejected and in a worst
case scenario he'd be killed.

That's why they tied a rope to him in
case they died in the presence of

God. And then it goes on to describe
the cherubim of glory,

the cherubs that stretch their wings
out over the mercy seat on the ark

of the covenant.

And you get this image of
God's presence there.

And I've read and heard a lot of the commentators
lately that are talking

about the fire of God's presence,

the shekinah glory of God and Jesus
being the radiance of that glory.

And I've even seen it
represented in some,

like, movie context,

where the fire on the altar,

it wasn't just like a campfire
sitting on the altar.

It was fire that stretched all
the way into the heavens.

And that it was the same fire that guided
the Israelites out of Egypt by

night and created the cloud by day.

And that this was the presence,

the representation of God's
presence among his people.

And this is all part of the
Covenant tabernacle pass.

The hebrew writers are saying,

this is what we had.

This is what was important to us.

This is what we were paying
attention to.

This is the way that we
got close to God.

You see?

That's what he's saying right there.

And then he says this.

And I love this sentence in the
middle of these ten verses.

It's not possible to speak about these
things in detail right now.

Don't you just love that
sentence right there?

You know why he says
that right there?

Because everybody he's
writing to knows it.

They all understand all of this representation
that I've just thrown at

you like a.

Like a.

Some sort of casserole,

right? That's the full dish,

that covered dish that Michael
was talking about earlier.

He stole my joke,

by the way.

But then he says this in verse six.

He says,

with these things prepared
like this,

the priest enter the first room repeatedly
performing their ministry.

That's how they would worship.

The priests would come in,

you know,

all the people out in the courtyard,

and they're slaughtering animals and burning
them and collecting all that

stuff.

And then they come and they wash,

and the priests go in and they
man the table of show bread,

and they man the candles,

and they the lampstand
or the candlesticks,

and they man the altar of incense,

and they do all this stuff in the.

In the outer holy place.

And then once a year,

the priest goes into the
most holy place,

you see?

And this is their worship.

This is the way they regularly,

daily, the priests,

the levitical priesthood,

the Aaronic,

the Levites.

The Levites.

They would perform this
ministry every day.

Okay, and so why.

Okay, so here's where I want to make
our first little application.

Y'all ready for this?

Okay. If you're not,

you're gonna get it anyway.

Why do we do the things we do,

you know?

Anybody want to know why
we sing three songs,

not ten time?

Thank you.

Anybody want to know why we.

Why we.

Why we have a pointed building?

Guess what?

They're not all pointed anymore.

I remember when I was a kid,

all churches were pointed
and had steeples on top,

right? I remember when I came here,

there was a steeple up here.

How many of y'all remember
the steeple we had?

Florence took it away for us.

But anyway,

I remember they mount.

I'm on here's.

All right,

so just like the explanation here,

I'm gonna tell y'all something.

They mount that fiberglass steeple on
top of this roof with shingles.

It was a metal roof,

but there were shingles under it.

They mount it with these cables,

and they drill holes in the roof,

and they run those cables
down from the steeple,

and they.

And they.

And they bolt them to the
trusses of the attic.

And then the wind blows and
saws holes in the roof.

Just so y'all know.

I'm just telling you why
people won't know.

Why didn't you put the root one,

put the steeple back?

Cause it makes it leak.

You want to know why?

There you go.

It just can't.

They caulk it,

you know,

and try to make it like it
wasn't going to leak,

but it still.

It just saw holes in the roof,

right?

So. So we look at these things,

and I looked around as a
kid at church and go,

well, why don't we do that?

Well, why do we do that?

Well, why do we do that?

And I have to be honest with you.

There were adults in my life back then
that would just say because.

But it all represents something.

Why do we sing?

We sing praises to God,

because God inhabits the
praises of his people.

We come in and we sing about
what God has done.

We sing about God's promises.

We sing about the things that
God has accomplished,

not simply in a gathering like this,

but what God's accomplished
in our lives.

And it becomes personal.

It becomes a relationship
with our creator,

God. And so,

yes, we come in here and
we remind each other,

we remind ourselves that God is
the focus of our worship,

that our lives are all about God,

that we don't turn aside from God,

that we don't neglect God.

We don't take God for granted,

that we don't take the salvation that
he's offered us and given us and

provided for us in Jesus Christ.

We don't take that for granted.

It's not just an add on like a membership
card we stick in our wallets.

It becomes worship every single day.

In covenant worship,

the priest did it every day.

And then it goes on to say,

but the high priest alone
enters the second room,

and he does that only once a year
and never without blood,

which he offers for himself and for the
sins the people had committed in

ignorance. That's a tough
statement right there.

That's the sin that they didn't
realize they were committing.

So what about the sin that
they willingly committed?

That's what Hebrews is warning
us about over and over again,

that we are to be careful in
our relationship with God,

not to take it lightly,

not to take sin lightly.

And we live in a world
that is just corrupt.

And there again,

christians dance too
close to corruption.

The Holy Spirit was making it clear that
the way into the most holy place

had not yet been disclosed while the first
tabernacle was still standing.

This is a symbol for the present time
during which gifts and sacrifices

are offered that cannot perfect
the worshiper's conscience.

See, we've already read where
the Old Testament covenant,

the Old Testament law,

the Old Testament sacrificial system
has become obsolete because of the

work that Christ has accomplished.

You see,

that's what the book of Hebrews
has already told us,

what is old and passing away.

And it doesn't perfectly
the worshipers.

It's only the sacrifice that Christ
has made that can perfect the

worshipers. He goes on in verse ten to
say they are physical regulations

and only deal with food and drink and
various washings imposed until the

time, this translation says,

of the new order.

Until the time.

What time?

The messiah's time,

Christ's time.

The fact that Jesus is the substitutionary
atonement.

Now, I love that a professor of
mine once explained atonement.

If you take the word apart,

it would be at one mint that Jesus
became our substitute.

He died for us,

right? So that we could
be one with him,

with God,

at one mint.

Right? That's why John the Baptist,

by proclamation,

I mean,

they're cousins.

But he says,

the lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world,

let the people know who Jesus is.

And it's not who Jesus was.

It's who he is,

y'all.

He is messiah,

he is savior,

he better be Lord.

Okay, so all this describes
in verse nine,

because now,

remember, at the beginning
of verse eight,

and I love it,

that at the beginning
of verse eight,

he says,

now, the main point of what
is being said is this,

Jesus, Jesus has inaugurated
a new covenant,

same law,

love God,

love your neighbor.

But a new covenant,

a new worship,

right? It's still relationship
with our creator God,

right? See,

all of this,

God ties it together.

When we get into the rest
of chapter nine,

we're going to see the new covenant ministry
and the new covenant worship

and the way the new covenant is a perfecting
covenant that allows us to

enter the presence of God.

Okay, see,

all right,

I've shared with you
and it's my fault,

I apologize.

But I've never preached through
the book of Hebrews until now.

And the more that I just start unwrapping
these things and I'm going,

wow, several years ago,

and ladies in here,

you'll probably know this like somewhere
around mid 20 00 20 06 20 07 a

study came out.

I forgot the name of it now.

But it was all about the tabernacle,

Beth Moore's study,

a woman's heart,

God's dwelling place.

And it went into the details of the
Tabernacle and temple worship,

describing every little part of what
God intended for us to see in the

Old Testament.

And yet we in the New Testament,

we go,

ah, we don't need that.

No, we do need that.

We need to understand that God laid it
out for us perfectly to understand

that it wasn't that all of a sudden he
had a new idea for our redemption.

He planned it from the beginning,

from the fall to bring
us back to him.

So it makes me ask the question,

particularly on a day like today,

you know,

I mean,

we've got some folks here that hadn't
been here in a while and glad

they're here.

And I got to say hey to several
of them already,

some folks that are here because
it's a holiday weekend,

woo hoo.

Right?

I always talk to people,

say, yeah,

I don't go over to the
island on holidays,

but anyway,

you know,

so, so here's the challenge.

Maybe this is the first,

only time you're going to hear this.

Are you paying attention to Jesus?

I mean,

if you,

if you claim Christ,

if you claim salvation,

if you've trusted Jesus and received the
redemption that God has provided

through the shed blood
of Jesus Christ,

that Jesus paid it all,

that's a him.

It's a him.

Jesus paid it all,

right.

Are you paying attention to him,

listening, spending time with him,

not just when we're
here for an hour,

but all the time,

every day?

Because we are priests.

According to what we're told,

we're a kingdom of priests.

They were told that in this book.

But we are priests before
the throne of God.

So don't neglect coming into his presence
if you don't know Jesus.

We want to introduce you.

Okay, let's pray.

God, thank you for today.

And thank you that you loved us.

You loved us first.

You love us most.

You've made a way for us to
come into your presence,

and so God help us to come
into your presence.

Not when we're in church.

This is not a tabernacle.

This is not a temple.

We are a temple.

We are the temple of
the Holy Spirit.

We're told in corinthians.

So, God help us to abide
in your presence.

Help us to draw near to you like
they did through the curtains.

Help us to come into your presence.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.