The Gathering Surf City

Hope you all are doing good.

We're closing out the year.

We're getting soon.

Today is the 29th,

so in a couple days we're
going to be in 2025.

That's pretty crazy.

You know,

I was only born in 83,

so. But don't brag.

I don't know,

I think it's cool.

Like, you know,

I just think about some of the stories
that I've heard from Mr.

Harold about his mom growing up around
here and seeing things change.

And, you know,

it can be unsettling sometimes
to see things change,

but it can be cool,

too. You know,

you can tell the old stories about.

I remember when I was a kid and,

you know,

and then you get to see,

like, all these cool things.

Depends on how you look at it.

But anyway,

this morning we're going to be.

The subject or the heading for this
morning is New Year's resolutions

with a question mark.

So how many people,

just quick show of hands.

How many people have made
a New Year's resolution?

No shame.

Yeah, a couple.

All right,

so that.

So we're getting maybe,

maybe a couple more that didn't
raise their hand.

That's okay.

God knows I'm just kidding.

Let's pray first.

How about that?

Lord God,

we thank you for this morning.

God, we thank you for your
goodness as we just sang.

God, you're good.

You're good all the time.

And God,

sometimes we don't understand
what's going on,

but, God,

your promises are true,

that you're good no matter what.

And so,

God, I just pray that in
these next moments,

as we're kind of diving into your word
and thinking on the thought of New

Year's resolutions and
all the things,

all the possibilities that
a new year can bring,

God, that you will speak into it and
that we can be obedient and we just

trust you and we love you.

In Jesus name,

amen. All right,

New Year's resolutions,

question mark.

I'm going to read a quick statistic
from the Googleator.

If you Trust that about 6 in 10 adults
who made at least one resolution

feel, 59% say they have
kept them all so far.

This was in 2024.

While 28% of them say they
kept some of them,

another 13% said they
have kept none.

So admittedly,

I don't know if I've.

I guess I made some New
Year's resolutions.

I went to a church one time
years and years ago,

and it was.

Their challenge was not necessarily
a resolution,

but like a one word,

you know,

so, like One word could be faith or,

you know,

whatever. Like,

instead of picking,

like a thing,

you pick a word,

which I thought was cool.

But anyways,

let's.

I want to talk about first.

I want to talk about why.

Why do we make them.

Why do we make a resolution?

You know,

it can be different for everybody.

Some people might make
them out of pressure.

One of the statistics was that a good
majority of people make a New

Year's resolution out of pressure.

Like they're pressured to fit into a
mold or a picture of something that

society says they should be.

You know,

that their friend group,

peer group,

whatever says that they should
be or look or do or,

you know,

whatever. You know,

some of them may be
of good intention.

You know,

you might have something going on in
your life that you know you need to

get rid of.

And so your resolution might be,

you know,

doing something out of.

Out of good intent,

out of your heart,

you know.

So the challenge that we're going to
go into is first off trying to

identify why we make them and then
trying to recognize or realize.

Are we making this resolution
for the right reason?

Right. Are we making it
for the right reason?

So let's read a verse.

Matthew 6,

31, 34.

This is a very famous passage.

It talks about the birds
and the lilies,

and, you know,

talks about how God
provides for them.

You know,

the birds neither,

you know,

collect or toil or whatever,

and they're provided
for the flowers,

they don't do anything,

but they're clothed better
than Solomon.

All those kinds of things.

Right? God provides for all of them.

So we're going to pick up in 31,

where it says,

therefore do not be anxious,

saying, what shall we eat?

What shall we drink?

Or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek
after these things,

and your Heavenly Father knows
that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness,

and all these things will
be added unto you.

Therefore, do not be anxious
about tomorrow,

for tomorrow will be
anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day
is its own trouble.

How many people spend their nights not
being able to go to sleep because

they're worried about tomorrow
or just all day?

Like how many people waste their whole
day worrying about tomorrow.

You don't get anything done.

You're just.

You're so anxious and you're so worried
about what could happen tomorrow

that your whole day is washed.

I've been there.

I've done that,

right? Or maybe it's
not even tomorrow.

Maybe you're worried about something
that is going to happen.

Next week.

Right.

And so I think the same thing can apply
to a New Year's resolution,

right? Like,

we're not even in 2025 yet,

and some of us,

you know,

have in our minds of what we
want 2025 to look like.

And so are you anxious about that?

Like, does that give you
an unsettling feeling,

the challenge in this,

in this question,

why do we make them?

Is, are we worried about this because
we're not trusting in God,

Right. Are we trusting in the God
who provides for everything,

who takes care of us,

clothes us,

takes care of all of our needs,

emotionally, physically,

everything? Right.

Not everything that we want.

Right. It's not like.

And we're going to go into some verses
that can be very misinterpreted

and, you know,

borderline go into the
prosperity gospel.

But, you know,

are we making these resolutions
for the right reason?

And can it be made simple?

The second part of this whole thing?

Can it be made simple if
I'm going to worry,

if I'm going to worry myself with what
and who I want to be in 2025?

And I can think,

I can make a list of all these things
that I want to do better.

Like, I want to be in better shape,

I want to eat healthier,

I want to be a better dad,

I want to be a better husband,

I want to be a better pastor.

Like, all these kinds of things.

I can make a huge long list of the person
that I would like to be and the

things that I would like
to improve on for 2025.

And I could worry myself to
death with that list.

Right? We can make a list and
then look at this long list,

and you got a whole page
of things that,

you know that you need to
change in your life.

And you can just,

you can,

you can almost get,

like, frozen.

And then like,

man, this is too much.

This is way too much.

I remember,

I remember when I was a kid,

well, in my 20s,

I'm still a kid to a
lot of you guys.

But Ms.

Jennifer just told me this morning,

she said,

I'm so glad that you
finally grew up.

So I'm glad I'm at least
getting there.

Maybe, I think,

what was 2016?

So if I'm 41,

2016 was.

What's that?

Almost nine years ago.

So that would have made me,

doing the math,

39. Is that right?

No, 29,

29, 30.

Yeah.

See, my math is terrible.

I don't know.

It was about nine years ago
or so when we moved back.

You know,

we lived in Panama for a Long time.

And, you know,

life was a lot more
simple out there.

Like, I lived in this little house.

Backyard was our jungle.

Rarely ever drove anywhere.

If I did drive,

it was just once a week to
keep the car running.

And so it was,

you know,

coming back here and everything's moving
every day and everybody's in a

hurry to get something done.

You know,

I guess I matured a little bit,

maybe. Maybe started fitting the mold
of the American image or whatever

that looks like.

But that can be part of
my point as well.

You know,

it can be made simple if we.

If we identify why we're doing things
and then maybe shift that focus.

So if.

If we recognize why we're doing it and
it's not because we're following

and trusting in God,

then I would be challenged to say that
you're making it for the wrong

reason.

So let's read Matthew
22:36 through 40.

So this isn't necessarily in context
with the New Year's resolution,

but I think it's very
applicable here.

And we read it.

I think we read it.

I think Bobby read it to us
maybe a couple weeks ago.

But anyways,

so Jesus was challenged by a Pharisee
or a teacher of the law on what the

greatest commandment was.

They were always trying
to trip Jesus up,

right? And so he asked him,

he said,

teacher, what's the greatest
commandment of the law?

Verse 36.

And Jesus said to him,

love the Lord your God
with all your heart,

all your soul,

and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and
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, you know,

obviously we got the 10.

The 10 commandments.

And then there's.

It says all the law and the prophets
depend on these two commands.

And the Jewish law had a bunch
of other laws on top of that,

right? It was all laws
that God gave them.

It wasn't like,

you know,

I've heard some people say,

well, man made up all those
other laws the Jews did.

But, like,

no, God actually declared.

If you read through Deuteronomy
and Leviticus,

like God actually ordained and,

like, commanded all those additional
laws to set them apart.

It was for their good.

And even,

like, you can think about all
the dietary restrictions.

It's crazy how science now is proving
that that diet that they were on is

like a crazy good diet.

Like, it would probably be really
expensive to be on that diet,

and I couldn't afford it.

But it's crazy.

Like, I've Heard of guys,

people getting hit,

healed from Crohn's disease and all
kinds of stuff just from going on

that Levitical diet.

It's kind of gnarly,

but anyways,

so love the Lord your God,

and love your neighbor as yourself.

So if you do those two things,

making it simple and focusing
on those two things,

because, like,

again, we can make a list,

right?

We make a list in our
minds all the time.

And I'm sure that some of the Jews got
burdened by all that whole list,

right? Like,

can you imagine,

like, having.

I mean,

we can look through it.

We've got it.

Like, we can look through
all of that.

All that law that they
had to go through.

Dude, I'd be like,

there is no way.

Like, I can't do half of them,

so why even try,

right? But Jesus made
it super simple.

He said,

there's just.

There's two that you need to follow,

and if you do those two,

you're going to do the rest.

Automatically, organically,

you're going to do the rest,

right? And so in making New
Year's resolutions,

if we can shift our focus on bettering
ourselves and shifting it to what

is God's will in our lives,

what would that do?

Like, what would that difference be,

Right?

What would that difference
be in your life?

I can remember again when
I was a lot younger and,

you know,

from the outside,

you know,

my life maybe didn't look
like a train wreck,

but inside it was a train wreck.

You know,

I can remember the things that
I worried myself with,

the things that I invested my time
and my money and my energy in.

You know,

I can remember the person that I
was and being completely lost,

like, having no clue what in the
heck was going on day to day.

And we're going to read a verse here
in a minute that it just got made

super simple.

One day I decided.

I woke up,

I went for a surf,

and I came home and I was actually
staying with some friends.

And after surfing and in the shower,

I decided to follow the Lord.

I prayed the best I knew how
to pray at the time.

And I said,

God, I don't know what it
looks like to follow you.

I don't know,

you know,

who Jesus really is,

but I know that I'm terrible
at leading my own life.

So whatever it looks like,

God, I'm following you.

Right? That was it.

That was the prayer.

And that was the day that I say that
I gave my life to the Lord.

And I can tell you that after that,

my life became like,

everything became so Much more.

More simple and so much more clear.

And it wasn't just like that,

but like.

So let's go on to,

you know,

where will your focus
be in the new year?

And it's just one quick verse,

and it's in Psalm 37.

4. And if you haven't read Psalm 37,

you know,

write it down,

it's not going to be up here,

but read,

read Psalm 37,

it's good.

But Psalm 37.

Four, it's a pretty popular verse.

It says,

take delight in the Lord and he will
give you your heart's desires.

So that can be that verse that I
was talking about that can be

misconstrued. Like,

I'll give you your heart's desires.

Like God said,

follow me,

trust me with your heart,

and I'll give you your
heart's desires.

Like, awesome.

I want a brand new boat that
would be super cool or,

you know,

10 more surfboards or whatever.

The interesting thing there is that if
we believe that God is the one who

gives us the desires,

not that we're the one that
create our own desires,

and then God gives us whatever
desire that is,

because then that could say,

like, you know,

we can have some mixed up or some
pretty messed up desires,

y'all. Like,

if I'm honest with myself and look
back on my life and even,

you know,

even recently and like,

some of the things that I think that
I want for myself that are super

selfish and I really,

like, really become honest
with myself,

like, some of them can be very,

very, very selfish and not
within God's will,

right? And I can want it and I can
try to justify it and be like,

God, I really want this because I can
do all this good for you and blah,

blah, blah,

blah. And,

you know,

whatever this verse is actually
talking about,

take delight in the Lord.

Like, take delight in his.

You know,

David said,

I take delight in,

in your commands.

I take delight in your discipline.

I take delight in all these things.

And because realizing it,

that it's for our good,

that it's chipping away all the rough
edges to turn us into a perfection,

which is the image of Jesus,

if we look at it in that way,

it simplifies it and it
makes it way easier.

And it makes it way easier
to be obedient,

too.

Because if you just trust
that it's for your good,

even if it feels difficult,

be like,

all right,

this is going to be tough,

but I know it's for my good
and I'm going to do it.

Take delight in the Lord and He will
give you your heart's desires.

What that means is an example of what
it looked like in my life is I

can't listen to some of the same
music I used to listen to.

I can't watch some of this.

I used to love horror movies.

I loved them,

like when I was a kid,

in my early 20s,

I loved horror movies.

Like, it was the best.

And it's not because I decided to start
following a bunch of rules.

It's because I started to.

I decided to follow Jesus.

I decided to allow his heart
to transform my heart.

And he changed my heart.

He gave me new heart's desires.

And I was honest with it,

right? And a lot of times we
can fight it and be like,

I remember there was a couple things
that I didn't want to let go of.

And, you know,

it's like in my mind,

I made a list of the things that I knew
God wanted to change in my life.

And you know,

that number one thing,

I was like,

I really like this thing,

God. I was like,

let's work on 2,

3, and 4 and we'll be good.

And I can just hold
on to number one,

because I'm not hurting anyone.

It's not,

you know,

I'm not hurt.

I can still serve you.

I'm, you know,

whatever. And then it's
just constantly,

God keeps bringing that up,

like, dude,

you got to get rid of that.

And you're like,

but I really like it.

It's my favorite thing in the world,

you know,

whatever.

But getting honest with yourself and
allowing God to change that desire,

and he really can,

like, I can honestly say that I don't
have the desire anymore to do,

you know,

the things that used to give me
pleasure when I was younger.

That doesn't mean that
I'm not tempted.

Sometimes I think tempted and wanting
to do them is totally different

because Jesus was tempted
by the devil,

right? You know,

the Bible says that Jesus
was without sin.

And so if temptation
is equated to sin,

then Jesus wasn't sinless,

right?

So we can all still be tempted to do
things and to veer off a course,

but that doesn't mean
that we're sin.

We're equipped with tools
to resist the devil,

right? Scott talked about
that briefly.

I was halfway paying attention.

But he talked about being
able to resist the devil.

In the presence of God,

the devil cannot operate.

It's impossible.

Cannot operate.

And so where will your focus
be this new year?

Is your focus this year going to be on
yourself or is it going to be on

God, that's the challenge.

It's just plain and simple.

What does that look like for you,

moving forward?

Well, it can look like
two different things.

You know,

if you're here this morning and you
got drugged by your spouse or

whoever, or you just
wandered in here,

that's totally fine.

We're glad that you're here.

If you have no clue what
I'm talking about,

you haven't allowed God into your heart
and accepted Jesus as your Lord

and Savior.

That first step is shifting
your focus away from you.

And that simple prayer,

like I'm telling y'all,

it's. It can sound crazy,

but once I wholeheartedly desired,

even though I didn't understand what
it looked like and what my life

would look like in the future.

But once I decided and I said,

God, I prayed.

Simple prayer,

God, show me what it looks
like to follow you.

Show me who you are.

And I was obedient every
step of the way.

Like, man,

it was crazy.

In just a short six months,

my life was radically changed to where
my sister's boyfriend was like,

dude, what happened to you?

I'm like,

I don't know.

I don't know what to tell you.

I didn't do anything.

God did it all,

right? God did it all.

So it can look like that.

It can be shifting that focus from yourself
and shifting your focus to

God. And for the believer,

it can look like taking
bold steps of faith,

being obedient,

founded in truth,

obedience, founded in truth
is a very important thing,

because, again,

like I said,

we can make a list of things that sound
good and can be good for us.

I remember one time I had this
great idea for an invention,

and it was a construction tool.

I actually put some thought into it.

It was a pneumatic nail puller.

I thought it was a good idea.

I was also under the influence.

But anyways,

I spent that whole day as a kid.

Anybody that's ever worked in construction
spent the whole day as a kid

pulling nails all day long.

And then at the end,

it was like,

man, there's got to be a
better way to do this.

And so I came up with this idea.

It was awesome.

I submitted it to the,

like, the patent office and
all that kind of stuff,

and I ended up getting scammed.

Long story short,

but anyways,

I remember I was still a
believer at that time,

and it was very early in my faith,

but I remember praying to God.

I was like,

God, I really want to
get this patented.

I want it to be successful because
I want to make a bunch of money

because I want to give it to whatever
I believe that God didn't allow me

to be rich because he knows I'm in numbskull
and I'll blow it on a bunch

of stuff that I don't need
to be blowing it on,

right? It's not because I didn't
have good intentions,

but he just,

he knows who I am,

right? And so I think a lot of times
we don't get the things that we

think we want because God knows us
better than we know ourselves.

Point being obedience,

founded in truth.

So seeking God's will and
taking steps of faith,

obedient truth.

I spoke with somebody this week
and they were talking about,

you know,

they've lived their life knowing something
that they should do but have,

but have had fear of going on
a long term missions trip.

Done plenty of,

like, done plenty of local missions.

Like I helped them with
the food pantry,

I helped with all these
kinds of things.

But then realizing that I didn't,

I kind of did what I,

what God was calling me to do,

but not really,

right?

Like, I just stayed in
my own comfort zone.

I think that happens
a lot sometimes.

But taking those bold
steps of faith,

those bold steps of faith,

if you know that God's calling
you to do something,

you got to do it 100%
how he wants it,

right? When the Israelites
were charging Jericho,

terrible battle plan.

Like, if you look at it from like a,

from like a general like
war standpoint,

terrible battle plan.

Like, can you imagine,

like some of the dudes that maybe their
faith was lacking and they were

just like.

And you know,

they show up and they're like,

all right,

here's the plan.

We're not going to do anything
except walk around the town.

That's it.

And they're like,

what?

Like, what about our swords?

Like, do we need to sharpen them?

Like all this kind of stuff.

I'm like,

no, we're going to walk around it.

On the first day,

they said,

okay, well on the second day,

guess what we're going to do?

We're going to walk around it again,

like, what?

When are we going to attack?

They're like,

don't worry about it.

On the third day,

we're going to walk around it again,

right? Like,

terrible battle plan,

awful.

But look what God did with it,

right? They were obedient to the T.

And then there's moments in the
Old Testament where again,

where people like,

they did 90% of what
God wanted them to,

but then that extra 10% they didn't.

And God held back the blessing
that was for them.

So think about all the blessings that
are meant for us that God really,

really wants to get us.

Like, maybe,

maybe God would allow me to be rich.

I don't know.

But maybe it's being held back
from my disobedience.

And I'm not saying I desire
to be rich and all that,

but it's just an example of
what I'm talking about.

Like, I feel like sometimes
we can have these,

these deep longing desires
for things that,

that we feel like is a promise
or a blessing to us.

But maybe there's some things that we
need to change and be 100% obedient

instead of 90% obedient.

If you understand what I'm saying.

Again, I'm not preaching
prosperity gospel.

And if you go 100% all of a sudden,

you're going to have a sweet Grady White
and you're going to have a house

on little Kinston on the waterway.

And you can just go out and go out
on your boat and whatever,

go on trips to wherever
the heck you want,

whenever you want.

But what I am saying is that with
these New Year's resolutions,

with this whole thing,

this mindset of,

okay, in 2025,

who do I want to be?

We got to decide to follow God.

That's it,

plain and simple.

And if we decide to follow God,

he's going to give us
our heart's desires.

He's going to give us the desire
to make those changes in us.

And not only the desire,

but the strength.

There's so many good
promises of God,

how in our weakness,

he gives us strength.

Just read your Bible.

You can look at all of the
people in the Bible.

They messed up big time and they
didn't have the strength.

And he can do it for you.

He did it for me.

He still does it for me.

And he can do it for you.

And it doesn't matter how old you are
and how long you've been following

God.

He wants us to be more than
just a seat warmer.

If you're still breathing,

you're still sitting here.

He wants to use you.

He wants to use you.

You're not here just to sit around
and come hang out on Sundays.

Which is awesome.

You know,

it's cool to come hang
out on Sundays.

But what kind of person does God want
you to be Monday through Saturday?

That's the challenge here.

The New Year's resolution
is being people of God,

loving God,

living Jesus,

walking together.

Those are the gatherings priorities.

And I think they're a good Solid,

biblical, truth based priorities.

So that's the challenge,

y'all. It can look different
for everybody,

I understand that.

But it's only going to make a difference
if you actually be truthful with

yourself and have some
self reflection.

Let's pray and then the band will come
up and share another song with us.

If you would like to pray,

you can come down here
and pray with me.

I'll pray about whatever you want.

And if you don't know Jesus and you
want somebody to introduce you,

I know plenty of people that
would love to do that.

So let's pray.

Lord God,

again we give you thanks
for all that you are.

God, I give you thanks that you desire
to give me what my heart desires.

God, that you don't want to leave
me in a state of my own self

destruction. Even though I think
I know what's best for me,

God, a lot of times it
gets me in trouble.

So God,

just help me to trust in you.

Help us to trust in you that your ways
are better than my ways and that

they're good.

God, that they're good.

They may not always be easy,

God, but they're good.

And God,

I thank you that you promised to never
leave us or forsake us and that

your love covers a multitude
of sins.

God, there's nothing that we can't do
in our lives that can separate us

from you.

When we decide to surrender to you and
allow Jesus to be our Lord and

Savior. God,

there's nothing that can
separate us from you.

And so God,

again we just trust you
and we love you.

In Jesus name,

amen.