The Gathering Surf City

All right.

Hey, guess what?

We finished today,

y'all. We have been in the book
of Hebrews since January.

The title of it has been the object
of our faith and the idea.

But y'all gonna stay.

Y'all good?

Hey, it's all right.

A little support in the background.

It's not a bad thing.

All right.

No, just kidding.

All right,

so, object of our faith,

the priority of.

Of our lives,

the focus of our identity,

and what it is that God
has not only prepared,

planned and provided for,

but what we respond to in faith.

Remember the idea from chapter
eleven being the.

In faith.

By faith.

By faith.

By faith.

The idea that we step out and.

Receive the salvation that
God has provided.

And given to us.

And by faith,

we believe.

So today we have the last.

Just six verses,

but it's just the very last section.

Quite honestly,

it's just farewell.

It's kind of like.

All right,

see ya.

All right,

so let's read them.

Verses 20 to 25 of Hebrews,

chapter 13.

It says,

now may the God of peace,

who brought up from the
dead our Lord Jesus,

the great shepherd of the sheep,

through the blood of the
everlasting covenant,

equip you with everything good,

to do his will,

working in us what is pleasing
in his sight,

through Jesus Christ,

to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. Brothers and sisters,

I urge you to receive this
message of exhortation.

For I have written to you briefly.

13 chapters is briefly.

Just so y'all know,

be aware that our brother
Timothy's been released.

And if he comes soon enough,

he'll be with me when I see you.

And greet all your leaders
and all the saints.

Those who are from Italy send
you greetings and grace.

Be with you all.

So let's pray together.

God, we thank you and praise you again
that we get to celebrate your.

Goodness, your mercy,

your love this morning.

And God,

it's always a privilege.

God, we want it to take it.

As this opportunity to shut down and
turn down the noise of the world

around us,

that we might focus our hearts and our
minds and our attention on you.

And, God,

we want to hear you this morning.

I thank you,

God, for the things that you've allowed
me to study over the last few

weeks, and,

God, that I might communicate.

But, God,

it's your voice we want to hear.

We want to hear from you and know,

God, that you have a purpose
and plan for this hour.

And that,

God, we can focus our hearts on you,

and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.

So, as this passage begins,

I'm just going to go ahead and tell
you that I'm going to actually be

preaching.

This for the next few weeks,

because what we do after we finish
the Book of Hebrews is we go back.

To the Book of Hebrews.

Now, just next week is
outdoor worship.

Was that on the announcement video?

Because I skipped it.

All right,

so outdoor worship next week
out in the parking lot.

08:00 and 10:00 come on.

If you're a family with children,

you.

Want to come at 10:00 because we're.

Going to follow at 10:00
we start 1130.

We have hamburgers and hot dogs.

And sometime after the
hamburgers and hot.

Dogs, we blow up the bounce houses.

And do the cotton candy and all that
sort of Thing for Kids FeSt.

So we invite you to come be
a part of outdoor worship.

If it rains,

come inside.

We were going to do baptism TodAy.

We had lined up several to get
baptized in the ocean TodAy.

But I've been told the
ocean's angry,

so we're not going to do that.

We've done it in angry ocean before.

It's not pleasant.

Just so you know.

It gives cause to remember
your baptism,

to be honest.

All right,

now, may the God of peace.

Now, see,

I looked at this and I was like,

wow. All right.

So THESE Six verses are
sort of the summation,

the farewell,

the benediction of.

The book of hebrews.

And so the writer of hebrews kind
of wraps it all up into one,

and basically,

in just a few short verses,

summarizes what he said,

what God has provided for ThROUgHOut
the book of hebrews.

And what the book of hebrews starts
with is God has spoken.

What God?

God, the God of peace.

The God who has been working from the
fall to restore the relationship

that we can have with him because
he wants peace with us.

And guess what?

We want peace with him.

All right,

so the fall,

the sin,

all of those things that corrupted
the relationship.

But between God's creation and God,

God has worked and provided for
peace between us and him.

And so we want to know that peace and
the book of Hebrews kind of lays it

out for us because it says,

who brought up from the
dead our Lord Jesus,

the great shepherd of the sheep,

through the blood of the
everlasting covenant.

So when we start to look at this,

we start to realize that the book of
Hebrews makes an excellent case for

Christ.

That's the title of a book.

If y'all haven't seen it,

I think Strobel wrote that thing.

But the idea is that the
case for Christ,

the book the case for Christ was actually
written a long time ago,

probably before 70 ad.

And we find it in the words.

Of the book of Hebrews.

So what we have here is that this case
for Christ is the idea that this

presents to us the supreme act of goddess
to reconcile the world to

himself. Jesus is unique
as God's work for us.

You know,

what it is,

is we.

See in the book of Hebrews,

we see Jesus as both God
and man completely.

We see him as king and priest.

Two things that seemingly,

to our finite minds,

is difficult for us to understand.

How can he be God and Mandev?

The Bible,

the law in the Bible tells us that
no man can be king and priest.

And yet Jesus is all those things.

Christ is supreme.

And what the book of Hebrews is telling
us is that God has spoken.

God has spoken.

And when we start to
go down the list,

I'm going to give you
the outline again.

I've been giving it to you
about every Sunday,

because Hebrews is easy to understand
if you follow this outline.

God, the God of peace,

has spoken in times past.

He spoke through prophets
and angels.

In these last days,

he has spoke.

Spoken through his son,

Jesus. Jesus is the son of God.

He is the heir of all things.

He is the.

He is the creator of all the.

All of God's creation,

universe. However you like
to refer to that,

he actually is the sustainer of
everything that God's created.

So who's holding it all together?

Jesus is.

You see?

So when you start to look at this,

you start to go,

wow. Okay.

This is the case for Christ.

This is the idea that God has presented
and provided for our salvation.

He is the radiance of God's glory.

So when you see that thing that a lot
of people like to zero in on,

that shekinah thing.

Shekinah, glory of God.

Guess what?

The radiance of God's glory,

the shining forth of the
glory of God is Jesus.

Okay, so there's not something out there
that just becomes this Shekinah

thing. No,

that's Jesus shining.

Okay? Jesus was in the bush.

Okay?

So, see,

when we start to look at this,

everything from Genesis to revelation
takes us from creation to kingdom,

and it's all about Jesus.

Jesus is the exact expression
of the essence,

the very nature of God.

So all of these things speak to him,

being God the son.

All right?

So there is an eternality
in this thing.

And so when we start
to realize this,

so then we see how Jesus is the only
one who could be qualified to be

king and priest over.

All that God has established.

So indeed,

he's our king and priestley.

So the point of today's message is,

keep on.

I've shared it a couple of times.

Press on.

Keep on.

Continue.

Be who God provided for you to be.

Be who God called you to be.

Do what God expects you to do.

Don't make excuses for
sin in your life.

I've said that one time.

That was one of the messages.

One day,

don't look at sin in.

Your life and go,

oh, God's forgiving and merciful.

And that's not why he's forgiving
and merciful.

So you can make excuses,

right? So what is our identity?

See, our identity is Christ.

Christ in us is the hope of glory.

That's what Paul said
in Colossians one,

the riches.

And he goes on when he says
the hope of glory,

he says the riches of the
mystery of salvation.

This redemption that God,

God bought me back.

Can I tell you what?

He paid more than I'm worth,

just so you know.

But he thought I was worth
more than I do.

You see that?

God bought us back.

That's redemption.

That's our identity.

I belong to him.

I can't go out here in
the world and go,

oh, I can pick.

My own things and I can
do my own stuff.

No, I belong to God.

He bought me.

He paid for me.

All right,

so what does that compel in my life?

What does that call
me to in my life?

How am I to respond to what God has
done to what God has accomplished?

Obedience.

We see in the book of Hebrews
also this warning system.

There's forewarnings.

It's almost like,

you know,

the hurricane.

Warnings or something,

right? You get the low
grade warning.

You might have the funnel
on the map,

right? And you might be in the
yellow area or something.

And then if you're in the red area,

that means packed,

right?

Well, the warnings kind of step up
in nature throughout the book of

Hebrews. Don't drift in your belief.

Don't, don't,

don't start investigating
crazy belief systems.

Don't start running after things
that stick to what's there.

Don't move into unbelief.

Now, I think this is kind of.

A partial,

well, I don't believe that.

Somebody says something,

take something from
the Bible and say,

well, this is what it says.

Well, I don't believe that,

really?

Remember the whole year we spent
going through the Bible?

I said,

God did not call us.

To be editors or redactors.

We don't get to cut out the parts
of the Bible we don't like.

Or that we don't think,

say what we want them to say.

Don't believe the wrong things.

There's some wrong.

All right,

remember I told you there's some
stinking thinking out there.

Be careful of the wrong things and.

Don'T ultimately reject God.

What is it?

What is our action?

What is our response to
what God has done?

Supposed to be and look like we're
supposed to grow in our faith.

We're supposed to guard our faith,

all right?

God has given us his spirit in
such a way to pour into us,

not just to say,

okay, all right.

I'm gonna give you a little bit,

and I'm gonna give you
more than I give him.

No, God pours into us his
spirit all the time.

If it gets blocked up,

it's cause.

We blocked it up.

Okay, all right,

so now we get to the end,

and I told somebody this morning,

this is all summary.

We can be done here
in a few minutes.

But God knew what was
going on today.

Honestly, I didn't plan today.

This was planned weeks and
weeks and months ago.

I didn't know Jennifer wanted to
do five songs instead of four.

See, she hadn't said anything
to me about it,

but they are.

Everybody else already
came back and said.

You know,

Jennifer picked five songs instead
of four this morning.

I was like,

what, I should go reprimand her,

right? No.

Anyway, but I knew,

all right,

so God arranged it.

God put it together.

And then Lindsay Loanander
comes up to me.

She said,

bobby, you think we have.

Any time to share a little
bit about young life?

I used to be on the young life
committee and young life.

I love the young life
mission statement.

See, there's papers out there.

You can grab your one.

We exist to introduce
adolescents to Jesus.

Christ and help them grow
in their faith.

That's why.

That's the mission statement
for young life.

That's what they want to do.

So then I started looking at
the end of the message.

How do we move on from Hebrews?

How do we get to the next.

All right,

so next week we're outside.

We're going.

The title of next week's message is,

be the gathering.

What does that come from?

That comes from Hebrews,

chapter ten,

verses 19 to 25,

where it says,

do not forsake the gathering
together of yourselves.

As some habitually do.

See that?

All right,

that's next week.

So go ahead,

study up and get ready.

We are the body of Christ.

Our fellowship,

right? This gathering of people.

You know,

some of you,

that have been around long enough.

And this is going to,

you know,

the big word these days is trigger.

This is going to trigger
some of y'all.

I don't often use the word church,

right? I just don't.

It's just one of those things.

You go out to an unbeliever out.

There and say,

church, they're going to go.

You go out there and tell them,

say, guess what?

We're a gathering of passionate people
who want to love God with

everything that we are.

They go,

well, I want to love God.

Well, come on.

Let me tell you how.

Let me tell you what God's laid
out for you to have this kind.

Of peace and loving relationship
with him.

But quite honestly,

you go out in this generation to go,

come to church with me.

They're going to go,

not on your life.

Right?

I'm just giving it to
you like that now.

It doesn't mean that church isn't an.

Operative word to describe
who we are.

I just don't use it.

I use these phrases right here.

We are the body of Christ.

Because first corinthians 1227 says,

we are the body of Christ.

Each a different member of the body.

There you go.

Acts 242 talks about the fellowship
of the believers.

Anybody meet somebody
new this morning?

Can I just go ahead and tell y'all,

we got new people in the
room this morning.

If you hadn't met them,

then you fell down on a job.

No, I'm just kidding.

No, we want to meet new people.

We want to meet people who
are searching for Christ,

that are reaching out,

asking, seeking,

knocking for the promises
of goddess.

The last one,

and this is my favorite.

It comes from one corinthians
16 one.

We are the gathering of the saints.

Right? I loved it when I was in high
school and my friend Brad Hamilton,

and, I don't know,

Brad sometimes watches from Texas,

watches our morning worship.

But I remember when our choir youth
director called him St.

Brad and we all laughed.

But that's what we are.

We are saints.

We are set apart unto God.

So next week,

when we start talking about don't
forsake the gathering together,

guess what?

That's a command.

So it's expected us.

We are the fellowship
of God's people.

So kind of in that sort of vein,

I want to introduce Hannah to you.

Hannah, come on up here.

I'm going to grab Kelly's
mic over here,

Chris. All righty.

Come on.

Walk out on the dock with me here,

Hannah. All right.

This is Hannah.

What's your last name?

Potts.

Hannah Potts.

I just met her,

but she is the area director
for young life up here.

Cape fear north is what
the website says.

Is that what we're calling?

Very cool.

Well, I want you all to
get to know Hannah.

There's a table set up out
in the welcome center.

You can get some of,

you can get this and all
that sort of thing.

Hannah's going to share with
you about who we are.

This guy's got more energy than any
high school kid I've ever meth.

That's amazing.

Like he said,

my name is Hannah Potts.

I get to be the area director
here for young life,

and this is my second
year doing that.

And it is an absolute
gift and pleasure.

And he already read our
mission statement,

which is to introduce adolescents to
Jesus and help them grow in their

faith. A part of what young life does
is we put on skin much like Jesus

and move into the high school to find
lost and disinterested high school

students. And we get to tell them about
Jesus and we get to show up like

Jesus to them,

hopefully. And so that's some
of my hope this morning,

is just to inform you a
little bit about that,

to be really clear that we're really
grateful for churches like you guys

in the community,

that we get to send our high school
friends as they come to know Jesus

back into the church.

And so grateful for churches that are
rich in their theology and in

community that we get
to send them to.

And then also to invite you
into learning more.

Maybe that's just asking questions and
being able to communicate about

young life and your spheres
of influence.

Maybe that's joining us in prayer.

I think we're the most arrogant when we
don't come to the Lord in prayer.

And so we need a robust team of people
who are committed to praying for

us. And so maybe that looks like support
in other ways with your time and

talents, or maybe you're interested
in joining our committee,

which Lindsay can tell
you all about.

She has faithfully served
on the committee.

That is some of the hope here this morning
is really just to say thank

you and just to give you the
opportunity to learn more.

We're going to be out front,

like he said,

but I'm really grateful to be able
to be with you all this morning,

to worship the same God as
you guys are worshiping.

And so I pray that this church community
would be growing in their

affections for the Lord.

And so thank you,

Bobbie, for the opportunity
to get to do that.

That's all I've got to say.

We'll be out front if you
have more questions.

There you go.

Get acquainted with Hannah,

because that's my little sister.

That's right.

That's my little sister.

I always like to point out,

when we start talking about the fellowship
of believers and the gathering

of the saints and all
that sort of thing,

we are the family of God.

And so I'm glad she's here.

I'm glad she could be
here this morning.

When Lindsey first asked
me about this.

She said,

I'll see if Hannah can be there.

And I was like,

cool. And so she had to get
up early to get up here.

So we're glad she's here,

folks. The summation of
the book of Hebrews.

Right. Conclusion of all things,

it's all about Jesus.

He is the priority.

He is the focus.

He is the center of our
identity in Christ.

Don't lose that emphasis.

When you leave here this morning,

guess what?

Somebody's going to look at you.

Okay, so I've had a lot of comments
on my shirt this morning.

The very first one came
from my wife,

Angie. I walked into the
room and she went,

something went splat on your shirt.

The other side of that remark
was Tony Morton,

who said,

the seventies called and
want their shirt back.

There you go.

Folks, you're going to walk out into the
world today and somebody's going

to look at you and they're going
to automatically make,

you know,

have ideas about who you are.

If you get the chance
to talk to them,

let them know you're about Jesus.

Let them know that that's what
Hebrews is all about.

By faith.

Remember the gas pump?

By faith.

I talked to somebody
about Jesus today,

okay? It starts with Jesus.

And if you don't know Jesus,

we want you to know Jesus
this morning.

We want to introduce you.

He's a best friend.

All right?

Friend that sticks closer
than a brother.

We want you to know Jesus.

So we're going to sing.

Well, actually,

choir's going to come back up here because
it's going to take a minute.

So I'm going to pray.

Y'all come on.

Yeah. Start making your way up here.

I'll wait till y'all kind of get sort
of in the area before I start

praying. Because we want y'all to
sing as soon as I say amen.

Right? Isn't that how y'all
time that stuff?

There you go.

Good job.

All right.

All righty.

It's kind of exciting to have the
choir doing the takeover.

I think the next one's scheduled
in December,

right? So they're gonna do Christmas
takeover in December.

So y'all be praying for
them as they practice.

And if you want to be a part of it,

they can add a whole nother
row up there if necessary.

Alrighty. So if you'd like
to sing in the choir,

you come on Sunday afternoons
at what,

530? She ain't listening.

Sunday afternoons at 535 o'clock.

05:00. See?

I'm wrong.

Alrighty. Let's pray together.

God, we thank you and we praise you
again that your word is clear,

your word is true.

And, God,

you are faithful.

And so,

God, I just thank you this morning
as we've studied Hebrews,

to understand God,

that you have worked from just
in the moment of the fall,

God, to restore peace between
you and your creation.

And God,

we are those who enjoy that
peace by faith in Jesus.

So, God,

we pray that God,

this morning we have grown,

we have learned.

And that,

God, we can reflect better
Jesus in our lives.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.