The Gathering Surf City

Well, I'll tell you,

it's interesting to see some of
the things that are going on.

And last night,

I got a phone call while I was.

I was actually doing a celebration of
life memorial service last night.

Pray for that family.

That's the 21 year old that passed
away last Sunday evening.

But actually,

about seven years ago,

I baptized him and his
mom and his daddy.

So just keep them in prayer because it
was a difficult time last night.

But during that,

I got a phone call.

And when I finally listened
to the message,

it was a guy I knew up
in the mountains.

And the first words out
of his mouth were,

I think I love you.

But anyway,

we had one of the gathering that
donated a camper two weeks ago,

and. And I called a young man that
I had discipled years ago,

who is now a pastor up there.

And anyway,

I called Nate,

and I said,

nate? I said,

we got a camper.

I said,

you think you could use it?

And he said,

yeah, my neighbor needs
a place to live.

Her house was flooded.

And I was like,

wow. And so he told me her name,

and I didn't think anything
about it.

And then when I was up there this week
visiting with a couple of pastors

on Tuesday,

he pointed to the house.

I went,

well, I know her.

I've known her for 20 years.

So when they delivered the
camper Friday evening,

I think they were cleaning
out her house.

I mean,

gutting it,

you know,

from the flood and everything.

And so her brother called
me and he said.

He said,

man, he said that thing showed up,

right? Just like at the exact
minute it needed to show up.

So God connects dots,

and that's exciting.

So thank y'all for being loving and
generous and all those kind of

things. Because that's where
we are right now.

Obviously, we finished up going
through the book of Hebrews.

And so now we're talking about
the gatherings priorities.

And the idea of priorities,

meaning those things which
are important.

And Jesus identifies
these as important.

So I want to read the text for you.

From Matthew,

chapter 22,

verses 34 through verse 40.

I don't know if I.

It says 39,

but I'm going to give you.

From 34.

It says,

when the Pharisees heard that he
had silenced the sadducees,

they came together.

One of them,

an expert in the law,

asked a question to test him.

Teacher, which command in
the law is the greatest?

And he said to them,

love the Lord your God
with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind is the greatest,

most important command?

The second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the law and the prophets depend
on these two commands.

So that's Jesus talking,

so we're going to pay
attention to it.

All right,

let's pray.

God, we thank you and
we praise you again,

that your word is true and faithful.

And God,

you've spoken to us.

And so,

God, it becomes our responsibility
to listen.

Not just to hear it,

but to listen.

To pay attention.

God, that we might do the things
that bring you glory,

but that speak of you to
the world around us.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. We started right toward the
end of September with what I've

referred to as the gatherings
priorities.

And the first thing we talked
about was identity.

Who are we?

You know,

we're a worship community of passionate
people that we live out the

gospel by loving God,

living Jesus and walking together.

And we spent a couple
of weeks on be the.

We spent one week on be the people,

be that people that lives
out those priorities.

Next week,

we spent that Sunday talking about be
the gathering that lives out those

priorities. Then we started dealing
with the loving God part of it and

what it means to love God,

what it means to love.

Kyle preached great on that Sunday on
the definitions of love and how the

Bible depicts love to the world.

And then last week,

as I was sharing with you,

that love,

you know,

the strongest statement I made last
week was the fact that you will

worship that which you love,

and you'll worship most that
which you love most.

So if there's something other
than God that you love most,

you're going to worship that more than
you'll actually worship God.

So when we're going to love God,

we're going to worship him.

And if we're going to worship him,

we need to love him most and best.

And I've always said he
loves us most and best.

So we love him most and best back.

So why are priorities.

Priorities. I mean,

why did Jesus name these as
the two greatest commands?

The first one,

the greatest.

The second is,

like it,

love your neighbor as your.

As. As you love yourself.

And the idea being that these are those
things that God has identified as

the most important things
that we can do.

Because if we don't do the
most important things,

we don't follow the instructions,

we can't possibly get it right.

So I'm going to tell you a parable.

This is just a Bobby parable.

It's not a Bible parable.

Bobby Bible kind of goes,

but anyway,

Bobby parable.

Anybody ever heard of the restaurant
called Ralph and Kakus?

Who's heard of Ralph and Kakus?

Couple of you.

I am shocked.

Well, this is a Ralph and Kaku's
cookbook right here.

Now, it appears that Ralph and Kaku
Olindy were restaurateurs in

Louisiana.

Says their first restaurant was on a
dead end road by a river called the

False river.

It was like a sort of a branch
of the Mississippi.

And they made Cajun food,

and it got so popular.

They opened one in Baton Rouge,

and they opened one in Bossier City,

and they opened one in Metairie,

and they opened one in New Orleans,

and they opened one in Houston.

They opened one in Jackson,

Mississippi.

Somewhere around 1996,

I think there was a fatal
era that took place.

They sold out to Piccadilly
cafeterias.

Ralph and Kakuz wasn't
the same after that.

But listen to this.

One pound crawfish tails,

one half cup of butter,

two tablespoons of garlic,

chopped, one half cups of onions,

chopped one half cup of celery,

chopped, half cup of bell pepper,

chopped.

One can of rotel tomatoes
and green chilies.

And the juice,

one teaspoon of salt,

one teaspoon black pepper,

half cup of parsley half
cup of green onions,

three cups of cooked rice.

Somebody tell me what that is.

Jambalaya. Thank you very much.

That is crawfish jambalaya.

Now, some of you might
not like crawfish,

so what we would do
then is we'd put,

what? Shrimp in it,

sausage in it,

chicken in it,

any number of other things.

But you know what happens when you change
out the first ingredient of

that recipe?

It's no longer crawfish jambalaya
because you didn't follow the

instructions, you didn't consider.

Now, this is Kakua Lindi's
personal recipe.

It says so right there.

If you don't follow
the instructions,

you don't make the dish
that's on the page.

It's a recipe to accomplish
what's set out before you.

Now, I'm not going to go into the instructions
because that could get it

confusing. Likewise,

if you don't follow God's instruction
for how to live the life that he

set before us to live,

it's not gonna come out right.

It's not gonna be what God
intended for it to be,

and you're not gonna.

And I'm not gonna be who
God intended us to be.

We've gotta love God first.

We gotta love him the most
more than anything else.

That's what we've talked about
the last two weeks.

So today,

the title of the message
is just living Jesus.

Because that's kind of
the way that over,

you know,

a little over 15 years ago
now that I identified.

What does it mean to love your
neighbor as yourself?

We're gonna go out into
this community,

and we're just going to live
Jesus in the community.

We want people to see Jesus in us,

so we're going to love
the community.

It was really interesting because
when I first came here,

the sunrise worship gathering that we
have was held down at the welcome

center right there next to Buddy's,

next to the pier down in that area.

And surf city Baptist Church had always
rented that building for the

sunrise worship gathering,

right?

And I didn't know.

I showed up,

and they said,

yeah, that's where we do it.

I said,

okay. And we do the sunrise
worship gathering.

And every year,

people would come up to
me and they'd go,

you didn't take an offering?

I'd go,

so, right.

I mean,

well, where's the offering plate?

Well, there's not one.

Well, where do we.

And I was like,

no, look,

this was something that we do and did
and we still do as a gift to the

community, because we want to tell
the community about God's love.

We want to tell the community about
the resurrection of Christ.

We want to tell the community
that we love them.

That's why we're giving this to
you as a worship gathering.

Right. That's how we wanted to
get out into the community.

And one of the things I used to say
quite often is that if we love the

community, then the community
will respond.

And so when I look at this,

I'm like,

wow, loving God is something
that we do.

Yes, between us and God,

but it's also something that we do that
the world needs to see in us.

Do we behave as if we love God?

Do we act like it?

Secondly, do we behave as
we love our neighbors,

others? That kind of idea,

because the priorities are,

is that we,

as the body of Christ,

we love God first.

We love others.

We walk together in that.

You know,

the idea of the body of
Christ coming together.

You know,

when I do a wedding,

it's interesting because everybody,

nobody knows how to stand
in a wedding.

You know,

you got all the ladies on this side
and all the men on that side,

and they're all standing out.

Well, what do we do with our hands?

Do we put them in our pockets?

You can put them behind you.

You can put them in front of you.

Somebody's got to give them
some instructions.

One of the instructions
I always say is that,

you know what?

If you want to know where to face
when you're standing up here?

It's always eyes on the bridegest,

eyes on the bride all the time.

And you just rotate with the
bride as she comes down.

Can I tell you all something?

For us,

as the bride of Christ,

ours is always eyes on the groom.

Right. Fix your eyes on Jesus
and don't take them off.

So, as I was looking at this,

to live like Jesus,

to live Jesus in the culture and the community
around us is to love other

people. And where does that start?

You know,

Jesus told us to love our neighbors.

And any defined neighbor,

he said the Samaritan and the Jew
to each other were neighbors.

The Samaritan loved the jew.

As if a neighbor said,

which one act more neighborly,

the priest,

the scribe,

or the Samaritan?

Right. Are there neighbors
that you love?

Are there neighbors that
you don't love as much?

Right.

You see?

So when I look at this,

I start to think to myself,

all right,

who are my closest neighbors?

Cause Jesus says the
second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Who's your closest neighbor?

Jennifer. Tom.

Right. Exactly.

Right.

That person closest to you,

that person that God's put into your
life as the closest one to you,

who's your next?

I'll tell you.

My closest neighbor's Angie.

My second closest neighbor
is Eli and Lillian,

soon to be.

What about beyond that?

Who do we keep loving?

Right. I tell folks all the time,

you know what?

You run into people all day long that
need to know that God loves them.

How are you going to show them that?

How are you going to show people that
God loves them if you don't show

them God's love?

You see,

that's what it means to live Jesus
in the culture and the community

around us.

Why is loving your neighbor as yourself
the second most important

command? I mean,

we live in a world now that say,

oh, God's all about love.

Well, yes,

he is,

but.

But our love for him gives us
definition and identity.

And then as we show his
love to others,

that's how the world becomes aware
of a God who loves them.

I mean,

John said in one,

John 19,

he says,

we love.

Our capacity to love is because
God loved us first.

So what does that mean?

That means that God's love for us shows
us characteristics of what we

call love that we're supposed to,

in turn,

emulate to others.

God's love is an unselfish love.

God's love's a sacrificial love.

God's love is always giving,

giving, giving,

and so God expects for us,

if we're going to love others,

then we've got to give of
ourselves to others.

That's the whole command there.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

So who do we love?

We love people,

right? I know some folks love non people
more than they love people.

Y'all know that.

I know some folks love animals
more than they love people.

I came through the seventies and eighties
when some people loved trees

more than they loved people.

They hugged them.

I think I heard.

I don't know,

you know,

but that goes.

Guess what?

I started again this week.

I've been working on it
for quite a while.

But we start the second Sunday of
January in the book of Romans.

You know,

in chapter one of Romans,

it says that people started loving the
creation more than the creator,

right?

We see that in our culture
and in our society today.

So who do we love?

We love one another.

We love our neighbors.

We love within the body of Christ.

I remember a preacher
saying one time,

look across the room.

If you see anybody in the room,

pick the one that you
love the least.

That's as much as you have
any love for goddess.

The fact that if you love
less in the body,

that's the limit of your
love back to God.

Because God expects us to love
one another with his love,

you see?

So we love within the
body of Christ,

but then we love everyone else,

too. Now here's kind of a
defining thing for us.

That doesn't mean agreement,

okay, I love people in
the world around me,

but I don't agree with them all.

I promise you,

I'll even hug people
I disagree with.

I mean,

I hug people that,

is there a differentiation
between love and,

like, you know,

I've always,

I've heard people say,

and I think I've probably said it,

too, I love everybody.

I don't like them all.

I think that's a difficult differentiation
right there.

But I can love people that
I disagree with.

Do you know that it's a loving thing to
tell people what God's word says?

Do you know it's loving to tell people
that they're wrong about what God

says?

You know,

I spent a whole year,

remember, talking about,

God didn't call us to be
editors and redactors.

You don't get to throw out of the Bible
that which you don't like or that

which doesn't meet your identity or
whatever you want to call it.

We're supposed to pay attention to what
God said and listen to him and

live that out.

So when I look at this
and I'm thinking,

all right,

we've got to love God.

All right,

so I asked you last week,

how many of you took your
own test this week?

When I said,

what does your worship look like?

What does your love look like?

You know,

how do you show someone else love?

Because loving like God's
love is that unselfish,

sacrificial, giving love.

How do you give of yourself
to others?

How do you give of yourself to God?

Yesterday we had this wonderful
women's conference here.

It was wild.

I came over early to say
good morning and I,

and left.

After I said good morning,

I came back to say goodbye
as they were all leaving,

that kind of thing.

But they,

everyone, everybody
I talked to said,

oh, it was wonderful.

Oh, it was great.

Because guess what?

There was this open door for people to
come in and be exposed to the love

of God,

that people wanted to share
God's love with others.

And the theme of the,

the conference was praise
him in the storm.

And so there was a lot of speaking and
a lot of stuff about the storms

that we go through in life and that
in the midst of the storm,

we still just praise God,

you see,

and how God takes us through storms.

So how much do we love our neighbor?

With your whole self as
you love yourself,

how much do you love
your neighborhood?

Right? What does that mean?

Here's the question that
I've asked myself.

What are you willing to
do for a neighbor?

What are you willing to
do for the person?

Now, I'm going to get kind
of specific here,

and I kind of made this
point to myself.

What are you willing to do for the neighbor
whose dog likes your yard

better than his?

Right. You know the point
I'm making here?

I've told y'all the story.

For a time up in Maryland,

we lived in a row house,

a townhouse.

Ours was wider than some of
the other ones on the row.

And so we actually had three parking
spaces in front of our house that

our neighbor enjoyed.

God was testing me.

Right? See,

sometimes those that live closest to
us or those that are within reach

are not the ones that are
the easiest to love.

And yet God says,

love your neighbor as yourself.

So here's the other question.

How easy are you to love?

And God,

who is perfect,

and Christ,

who walked this earth and
died in our place?

Right. How easy were
we for him to love?

Love your neighbor with your
whole self as yourself.

Love your neighbor.

See, these are priorities.

If you take the first
ingredient out,

you're not going to end up with what
God intended you to end up if you

take any of those ingredients out,

you're not going to end up with what
God intended for us to end up with.

Okay?

So I call them priorities.

God's purpose,

God's plan,

our identity.

Might as well call it a recipe,

right? And you got to put the stuff in
the recipe if you want to see what

God intended.

It all starts with Jesus,

folks.

If you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus.

You might have come this morning.

And I always.

It intrigues me throughout the morning
that there are folks who show up

for the very first time
ever at the gathering,

and I go,

you know what?

I don't know why you're here.

I mean,

I love it that we're having worship,

and I love it that we
do worship well,

because that's a priority for us.

Right? Loving God,

our worship is a priority.

But why are you here?

Right?

What motivated you to get up
and make this a priority?

See, I'm glad.

I love it that you're here.

I love it when vacationers
show up for worship.

I think that's a cool thing.

You're on vacation and you
make worship a priority.

Yay. It's a great thing.

But here's the challenge.

Here's the challenge is that if we want
to be the people that God called

us to be,

then we got to do the things
that God told us to do.

Okay? So if you're here
this morning,

you don't know Jesus.

Guess what?

God loved you that much.

He loved you first.

He loved you most.

He loves you best.

He gave his son.

Jesus died on the cross,

that we might be saved.

He rose again to give
us victory over sin,

death and hell.

If you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus.

And we're going to sing
one more song,

give you the opportunity
to respond to God,

whatever it is God might have
said to you this morning,

one of the things in preparing
these priority messages,

I'm going to go ahead and tell you.

I look at it and I go,

I've already said that.

I've already said that.

I've been saying this for 15 years.

I've been saying these exact.

Well, we didn't have the walking
together about five years ago.

I've been saying these same
things for 15 years.

But here's what I want you to know.

There was a new pastor in town,

got to his new church,

and he got up and preached.

And, man,

it was a good message.

If you've already heard this joke,

just put your fingers in your ears.

Anyway, it's a good message.

And people went out the door going,

preacher, that was such
a good message,

man. I tell you what.

I don't know.

That might be the best message
I've ever heard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next week,

he comes in and he preaches the exact
same message exactly like he

preached it the week before.

And people said,

preacher, I told you last week,

man, that was a great message.

Loved that message,

man, that's a good message.

Probably one of the best messages
I've ever heard.

He came back the third Sunday,

he preached the exact
same message again.

Same guy goes,

preacher, you know,

love the message.

Gotta admit,

one of the best messages
I've ever heard.

But are you ever gonna
move on to a new one?

He said,

when you start doing that one,

folks, I just want to encourage you.

God has given us our priorities.

God has given us the recipe.

Now we have to go do it.

Alrighty. Pray with me.

Father, thank you for today.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you.

That indeed,

you loved us first.

You love us most.

You love us best now.

God, help us to go and love others.

God, I would challenge myself and us to
pick the person that's hardest to

love and find a way to love that person
this week and then take the

opportunity to explain why.

Cause you loved us so.

God, I thank you.

I thank you that you've
given us priorities.

That you've given us opportunity.

And, God,

it's indeed a privilege
for us to be,

as Diana said in the video,

the hands and feet of Jesus.

Thank you,

God, that we've been able to love our
neighbors up in the mountains.

Thank you.

That there's a camper that
somebody gets to live in.

Because somebody said,

I want to give it.

God, help us to give.

Help us to give love.

God, help us to give Jesus
to those around us.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.