The Gathering Surf City

God's good.

He supplies.

That's why today's message.

More about what can you count on?

What can you know for a fact?

All right,

we're going to talk about
that in a few minutes,

because as I read the passages,

as I outline the passages,

as I seek to understand what God
is revealing to us of himself,

remember, the word of God is the revelation
of God himself to us.

And so as we study the word of God,

what we get a glimpse of,

what we see in the word of God,

is God himself.

And so we've been calling the messages
the object of our faith.

And now we've got a new.

These are new now because now they've
got scripture on the back to kind

of give you the focal point of it that
we get to follow after Jesus.

And so I'm excited about what God's
doing as we make our way through

Hebrews. Hope you're studying.

Hope you're reading.

Hope you're praying about it.

So let's read Hebrews,

chapter 214 to 18.

Here we go.

Now, since the children have
flesh and blood in common,

Jesus also shared in these so
that through his death,

he might destroy the one holding
the power of death,

that is,

the devil,

and free those who were held in slavery
all their lives by the fear of

death. For it is clear that he does
not reach out to help angels,

but to help Abraham's offspring.

Therefore, he had to be like his brothers
and sisters in every way so

that he could become a merciful and
faithful high priest in matters

pertaining to God,

to make atonement for the
sins of the people.

For since he himself has suffered
when he was tempted,

he is able to help those
who are tempted.

All right,

pray with me.

Father, we thank you for your word.

And we thank you,

God, that indeed you are
showing us yourself.

God, you want us to know you better.

God, you want us to draw near to you.

God, you want us to abide
in your presence.

God, you want us to reach
out and cry out to you.

And, God,

I'm so grateful for what
you've shown us,

but what you teach us as
we study your word,

because, God,

you have indeed shown us yourself.

And so,

God, as we.

God, help us to pay attention.

God, help us to see that which
we would not see ordinarily.

God, we pray by your spirit that
you would fill us up in a way,

God, that we would be able to understand
our heavenly Father,

our joint heir,

Jesus. And God,

your spirit that fills us and empowers
us and guides and convicts.

God, help us to see you today.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. One other thing I meant
to mention this morning is,

well, let me mention this,

too. I know this is like
more announcements.

Don't forget these cards.

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Fill these out.

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check that box.

You drop these cards in the
white boxes by the door.

If you want to give by envelope,

those envelopes are in
the backs of the seat.

This is an opportunity for you,

if you're interested,

and it's entitled just explore
homeschooling.

It's a workshop that's going
to be held Saturday here.

Curious about or currently
homeschooling.

Need support.

Need help?

It's just an opportunity
to find some help.

Marianne Orr.

Some of y'all know Marianne.

Marianne was homeschooling before.

Homeschooling was cool.

And so she and I met a few weeks ago
and she said she'd really like to

just get homeschoolers,

homeschool families together and just
talk and find out what resources

and helps that she might
be able to provide.

And so that's an opportunity.

They've got this information
out at the desk out there.

Last thing.

You ready?

Joy's back.

Joy moved away from us
a few years ago,

but she's come back to worship
with us this morning,

and that's exciting.

What do we know?

What do we know about.

Well, no,

let's just ask this question
in general.

What do we know about anything,

right?

I mean,

you look at the world around you.

Is there anything that we
can count on anymore?

I look at stuff around,

I go,

okay, you know what?

I'm going to just use a very
simple illustration.

If I drive to this gas station,

I know it's going to be the cheapest.

No, it's not.

They'll jack it up ten cents
because it's Thursday,

right? I mean,

what can we count on?

Well, as we study the
book of Hebrews,

there's some things that
we can count on.

Well, first of all,

I've shared with you,

we're not really sure who wrote
the book of Hebrews.

There are some people who are
convinced might be Paul.

Some say it could be Barnabas.

Some say Apollo.

Some say it could be some
collection of them.

Eli threw out one to me yesterday.

What if it's Paul writing to James?

I was like,

where'd you get that from?

He said,

I don't know.

So we're not really sure.

I mean,

there are some people that are heavily
under the conviction that it's

Paul.

There are other scholars who look at
the greek and all that and say,

I don't think so.

Who's the audience?

The audience is obviously people who
are knowledgeable and familiar with

hebrew culture and history,

but they're obviously christians
who have trusted Jesus.

But there seems to be some question
as to what are they holding to.

Are they holding to their
christian faith?

Are they looking forward to going back
to a hebrew standard of law and

rules and all that?

So the writer is saying,

look, Jesus is it,

Jesus is superior.

Jesus is the end all be.

Jesus is the superior message
of God to us.

Nothing that you've
known in the past,

nothing that you've known
before is what Jesus is.

The book of Hebrews teaches
us these things.

God has spoken.

God spoke through prophets,

God spoke through angels.

But in these days,

God has spoken through his son,

who is heir of all things.

He is the creator,

he is the sustainer of
all God's creations.

He is the radiance of God's glory.

He is the exact expression
of the essence of God,

you see?

And so when we look at
the book of Hebrews,

what we're going to keep coming
back to is Jesus.

We're going to run over here
and take a look at that,

come back to Jesus.

We're going to talk about angels
and come back to Jesus.

We're going to talk about the,

and we're going to do that
all the way through,

because Jesus is superior
in every way.

Jesus the Christ,

is the one and only God,

man, who could accomplish
the purpose,

plan and the progression of
God's redemptive story,

plan and purpose going
back to the fall.

Jesus is king,

which means he's just.

And as a just king,

guess what he has to do?

He has to punish sin.

If he's going to be just,

there has to be punishment.

But guess what?

Jesus is the only one that has the authority
to also be the high priest.

So you've got Jesus,

who is king,

and high priest,

who is able to give us justice,

but also mercy.

Because if you look at
the Old Testament,

you look at the story of
the hebrew people,

you've got a just God,

and yet he kept giving mercy for sin.

So he's not just.

If he's not punishing sin,

then he's not just.

But he established the system of the
priesthood and the sacrificial

system and all that sort of thing.

Well, Jesus comes along
and Jesus is both God,

he is both high priest,

he is both man,

he is God.

He is king,

he is high priest,

and so he is just,

and yet he is merciful.

And we see God's grace.

What's the point?

Point is,

Jesus is the faithful highest
priest and God.

So in this passage,

what does it say?

Now, since the children have
flesh and blood in common,

Jesus also shared in these so
that through his death,

he might destroy the one holding
the power of death,

that is,

the devil and free those who are held
in slavery all their lives by the

fear of death.

You see,

at creation,

God gave dominion over
his creation to man.

He said,

you're to exercise dominion.

And yet man failed,

handed dominion,

handed an authority over God's
creation to the adversary,

to the devil.

See, he forfeited his dominion.

But man was given sort of that ambassador
rule over God's creation,

to rule in God's place.

And yet he forfeited that
rulership to the devil.

God's plan is to take that back.

See, this is all in here.

I mean,

it's complex.

And I had to study really hard to
be able to give you this summary.

But you see,

man forfeited his dominion.

And yet in order for God to give
man that dominion back,

the devil has to be defeated.

But you know what?

We can't defeat the devil.

Mankind can't defeat the devil.

Only God can defeat the devil.

So God had to become man to accomplish
the devil's defeat.

You see,

God had to become man to recover that
dominion and give it back to

mankind. So Jesus destroys
the devil.

He destroys the devil's
hold over death.

And I love this sentence right here
where it's a long sentence.

It just runs on and on and on.

They tell me in English,

it sounds like Paul.

It is similar now,

since the children have flesh
and blood in common,

Jesus also shared in these.

So Jesus.

The humanity of Jesus.

In the first chapter,

we see Christ.

Christ. In the second chapter,

we see Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus Christ always
pointing to his kingship,

Jesus always reporting to his humanity
so that through his power he might

destroy the one holding
the power of death.

That's the devil.

And listen this.

And free those who were held in slavery
all their lives by the fear of

death. We've been freed.

And Scot just sang about
that up here.

I've been freed and forgiven.

I'm not going back.

Right, that's it.

See, Jesus frees God's family.

Jesus frees mankind.

See, romans,

I think it's somewhere around
chapter six or so.

It says that we are enslaved
to sin and death.

See? And Jesus frees us.

How does he free us.

He frees us by destroying the devil.

Now, guess what?

The devil's still kind
of doing his thing.

He's not ultimately destroyed yet,

but he will be.

His head will ultimately be crushed
under the foot of Jesus,

you see?

And that's the promise going all
the way back to Genesis.

And so what do we have?

And folks,

I'll be honest,

I'm sitting here going,

oh, wow,

our world can be upside down.

But I'm asking the question,

what can I count on?

Here's what I can count on.

God has proclaimed it.

God has established it.

God has accomplished it.

God who sits outside of time says,

yes, this is how it works.

I've told you before that the Old
Testament and the New Testament,

the book of Hebrews,

kind of is the hinge that
holds all this together.

It is the revelation of God and his
work and his plan through son,

heir, king,

priest Jesus,

he's the one that accomplished
all this stuff.

He's freed us.

And then this phrase right here,

who were held in slavery all their
lives by the fear of death,

y'all. We live in a world that is,

this is just the way it's
going to come out.

We live in a world that's
scared to death of death.

I mean,

just like we're doing everything that
we can not to go there or to

somehow avoid death.

Can I just go ahead and
tell you nothing works?

It's a terminal ending,

folks. I didn't do anything
to it this time.

Where's Jennifer's microphone
popping again?

I put my new mic on and
now it's broke again,

you see?

And so I look around and I go,

guess, mean,

I remember as a kid,

they always said to said,

you know,

only things you can count
on are death and taxes,

right?

Remember that,

y'all? And then somebody threw in the
smart aleck comment and taxes until

you die,

right? You.

I mean,

Jesus frees us from
the fear of that.

And I try to tell people
all the time,

why do we fear death?

If we would pay more attention
to the promises of God,

the hope of God,

the things that God has guaranteed for
us and has revealed to us through

his word and through his
son and by his spirit,

then we don't have a fear of that.

That doesn't mean we're
going to run into it.

I'm not looking up and I go,

oh, death.

Oh, yeah,

here. But I mean,

the point is,

I don't have to fear it because I've
been released from that fear.

He goes on to say,

for it is clear that he does not
reach out to help angels.

Now see,

this is that differentiation between
the angels and mankind.

Y'all know we live in a culture
just loves angels.

In the Old Testament,

you see the angels delivering the
message of God to God's people.

But every time you see an angel
deliver a message of God,

you know what he says?

He proclaims God.

He proclaims who God is.

He proclaims the way God works.

He proclaims God's judgment.

He proclaims God's mercy.

He proclaims the things of God.

But we live in a culture that likes
to talk about angels going,

oh, you can be your own God.

Just watch afternoon talk shows,

right? And then we put
it into movies,

right? And I was listening to
one preacher this week,

and he was talking about,

he said,

man, he said,

if you pay attention what I say,

I didn't know.

He went through a whole list of
all these people who said,

well, I wrote this book because
an angel gave it to me.

I wrote this script for this movie
because an angel appeared to me.

He went through this whole list.

He said,

you know what he said?

And in all of those,

none of those angels proclaim God and
God's purpose and God's justice.

As a matter of fact,

a lot of the angels that we see
in pop culture today says,

oh, there is no God.

You're your own God.

There is no judgment.

There's no punishment for judgment.

You know what?

When I hear those kind of things,

I think to myself,

I think,

oh, yeah.

But didn't a third of the
angels become demons?

There's a whole lot of demonic influence
in our culture today.

Y'all people paying attention
to angels,

but the wrong ones.

God didn't reach out to help angels.

God didn't send Jesus
to redeem angels.

God sent Jesus to help
Abraham's offspring.

Therefore, he had to be like his brothers
and sisters in every way.

Remember last week,

I said,

he is not ashamed to call
us brothers and sisters.

He had to be like us in every way so
that he could become a merciful and

faithful high priest in matters pertaining
to God to make atonement for

the sins of the people.

What did he do?

He became like us.

He was tempted just like us.

And that unfolds a little later
in the book of Hebrews.

But the idea is that Jesus had to be
like us so that he could defeat

Satan, because only God
can defeat Satan.

But he had to be man
to defeat Satan.

He had to be man to take
back God's dominion.

See, for since he himself has suffered
when he was tempted.

He is able to help those
who are tempted.

Jesus joined with us.

See, Jesus became like us.

Here's what I love about it,

and I forget who I heard say this.

Jesus joined with us in humanity so we
could join with him in eternity.

He gave us victory,

y'all.

Yeah, I look around at gas stations and
gas prices because I drive a lot

these days.

You know what I used
to could count on?

I used to could count on South Carolina
having gas prices $0.25 lower

than North Carolina.

It's not happening now.

Matter of fact,

South Carolina's gas prices were higher
than North Carolina's this past

week. Thinking what happened?

I used to could count on just getting
across the line and saving about

$2.50 because my car only
holds ten gallons.

What can we count on?

What can you know?

Here's what we know.

We know that God has spoken.

We know that God has revealed
himself as father,

as son by a spirit.

See, remember,

I preached out of first acts one,

one time,

and I do this every time I like.

It's funny to me,

Christ, and I call it
Jesus the Christ,

because Christ is the greek word
for the Old Testament messiah,

or the reference to the messiah.

God's promised one,

God's anointed one.

And so Jesus Christ,

and we use it,

and you see it in scripture like it's
a first name and a last name,

and that's fine.

But the point is that he
is God's salvation,

the messiah.

That's what his name represents.

And we can know that.

We can trust that.

We can put our hope in that.

You see,

when I look around at the world
that is falling apart,

folks, the world around
us is falling apart.

What can I know?

I can know that God has a plan and
a purpose for his creation,

for the redemption of his creation.

He has a plan and a purpose for
the redemption of mankind.

He has a plan and a purpose for me.

See?

And so how do I get in
the middle of that?

How do I live that out?

How do I abide in that
revelation of God?

See, how do I dwell there?

How do I walk in that identity that
God has given us in Jesus Christ?

See, when I study through this,

and this is the end of chapter two.

So next week we'll be jumping
into chapter three,

and then it just continues to
amplify these messages.

Chapter one and chapter two kind
of present the going forward,

get into chapter three, four, five,
or six up to about chapter nine,

and we start to see that the writer is
unfolding this failure on the part

of God's people to recognize
who Jesus was and is.

And so we get about four warnings
in here that tell us,

don't miss Jesus like
God's people did.

Don't rebel because of unbelief.

Don't be selfish.

Don't be self centered.

Don't go off on your own plan because
your own plan is going to lead to

death. Okay?

Recognize who Jesus is.

Recognize what God has done.

Know that you know that you know
that Jesus is Messiah,

son, savior,

creator, sustainer,

Jesus, the very exact essence of God wherein
we recognize God the Father,

God the Son,

God the spirit,

and know that he has revealed
himself to us. You know,

I'm glad you're here this morning.

I see some first time folks here.

I'm glad you all are here.

Yay. We'd be back next week,

so you come,

too. Well,

my point in that is this.

There's a lot of you folks
that I like a lot.

I'd love to hang out with you.

Let's go get a cup of coffee.

Because I drink coffee all day long,

right? But to be perfectly honest,

transparent in this.

I'd rather spend time with God.

Please don't be offended by that.

I just want to spend time
in God's presence.

I just want to praise him.

I want to be still and know God.

I just want to be there.

I want to sit on his lap
in his swivel rocker.

Right? I just want to
be close to God.

See, that's what I can know in a world
where gas prices have gone through

the roof and I don't know who
to trust on the television,

and I don't know who to trust
in the street anymore.

What can I know?

I can know that Jesus is victory.

Jesus is my victory.

Jesus is really the only victory.

And that's what we can know today.

Okay. If you don't know Jesus,

we want you to know Jesus.

Want you to receive the salvation
that only Jesus can give us.

Want you to trust him,

want you to live him.

Live Jesus in the world.

Because guess what?

The world needs Jesus.

And if you don't have Jesus,

you need Jesus.

Pray with me.

Father, thank you for this day,

a day that you've given us to
rejoice and be glad in you.

And I thank you,

God, that your word is clear.

You are faithful and true,

and you have shown us what we
could not know otherwise.

God, we are finite.

You are infinite.

God, you have revealed yourself
through your word in creation,

through the body of Christ,

God, we can know things that
even the angels can't know.

So God help us to pay attention.

And if there's even one here this morning
that hasn't trusted Jesus,

that doesn't know that
if this were it,

they'd spend eternity with you,

then, God,

my prayer would be,

they'd meet Jesus this morning.

They'd know you,

Jesus. They'd surrender to you,

God, as we sing,

I pray that we'd respond to you,

God. If there are those that want to
be a part of what you're doing here

at the gathering,

then let them come on down.

God, we just want to serve you.

We want to be near you,

and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.