The Gathering Surf City

I'm glad we get to hang
out together today.

We're still considering and
talking about all this.

Well, until we run out of
the book of Hebrews,

we're talking about the
object of our faith.

And what's been fun for me,

in a way,

is that as we get into the more
specific outline of Hebrews,

I come across those passages like today
that I just preached in October

up and reminding myself of the things
that I talked about in October.

And then last year,

as we were talking about our discipline
and our faith and the disciplines

of our faith and those
kind of things,

I kind of looked back and I thought,

you know what?

There comes the birthday girl.

Let's sing to her.

Ready? Happy birthday to you happy
birthday to you happy birthday.

God bless you happy birthday
to you there you go.

Don't often get interrupt.

Well, I do.

Oftentimes I get interrupted when
I'm saying something anyway.

All right,

but, yeah.

I look back over the outlines
from last year.

And realized how many times I
preached on a topic such as.

Pay attention.

Who are you listening to?

Who do you trust?

Well, guess what we're going
to talk about today.

Pay attention.

Who do you listen to and
who do you trust?

All right,

so that's where we're going today.

And I just want you to know it.

Because what we're talking about all
throughout the book of Hebrews is

Jesus. Our concentration,

our focus,

our priority is going to be to really
consider Jesus and what God has

accomplished in salvation.

And that Jesus is not merely what we
would refer to as the object of our

faith. He is our faith.

It's where we devote ourselves and
where we find our identity.

I asked last week,

when people see you,

do they see Jesus?

See, that's a question we need
to answer every day,

every day of our lives.

So let's read Hebrews.

Chapter two,

verses one through four.

And I love it that it starts
for this reason.

Anytime you see a phrase like that,

you go,

for what reason?

All right,

so for this reason,

we must pay attention.

I circled it.

We must pay attention all the
more to what we have heard.

So that we will not drift away.

For if the message spoken through
angels was legally binding.

In every transgression of disobedience
received a just punishment.

How will we escape if we neglect
such a great salvation?

This salvation had its beginning when
it was spoken of by the Lord.

And it was confirmed to us
by those who heard him.

At the same time,

God also testified by
signs and wonders.

And various miracles and distributions
of gifts from the Holy Spirit

according to his will.

Pray with me.

All righty,

Father, we bow and thank you.

Thank you for your word.

And thank you,

God, that in repetition,

we get reminded of the things
that you've said.

God, the things that you have
made important to us.

God, it becomes our task
to pay attention,

becomes our task to concentrate and
focus on the things that have

meaning, the things that
are important.

When the world around us is screaming
and making so much noise and trying

to lead us down a path
of destruction.

Father, thank you that
you call to us,

you speak our name.

You draw us near.

So God,

help us to draw near today.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. I remember sharing this
passage back in October,

and I told y'all the story about
my last surfing excursion.

How many of you remember that?

Yeah, right.

It was the one where I drifted.

I drifted away.

I drifted from the shore.

I drifted from friends.

I drifted,

and only to turn around and look back
and see the shore was like houses

this big.

And I was like,

this surfboard is not a cruise ship.

So I need to get back
close to the shore.

But when we consider this passage,

these four verses,

I see this as kind of one of those pivot
passage in what God is trying to

share with us and show us
in the book of Hebrews.

Because we start out with four verses
in the beginning that kind of hold

to a context that God spoke
through prophets.

And in these last days,

he spoke through his son.

And his son is not simply son,

but he's heir and king,

and he is the creator
and the sustainer.

And we find out so much in those just
two little verses in chapter one

that tell us who Jesus is.

And then we find this comparison of
the message that God preached

throughout the Old Testament through
prophets and angels and what he has

spoken through his son Jesus,

and why that's a priority.

Why is it that what God has
said through the Son,

what the Father and the Son,

the Holy Spirit,

what the communication
that God gives to us?

Folks, I grew up in church,

okay?

Yeah, I use the word church.

Some of you know,

that comes rare to me.

I grew up in church.

I remember sitting where you sit.

Matter of fact,

I sat on the back row of the balcony when
I was a teenager because that's

where I could rest my
head and fall asleep.

My parents couldn't tell
from the choir loft,

just so you know.

But what does that speak?

That means I'm up there
not doing what?

Paying attention.

This is an incredible gift.

We have to be able to study God's word
to come together as the body of

Christ and to be able to study God's
word together and consider those

things that God considers
important for us.

And how easy is it for us
to come in and sit for.

We've had a lot of new folks come and
visit with us over the last few

weeks, and that's cool.

And I love it.

I just tell folks,

if you gather,

you the gathering,

so welcome,

act like you've been here all along.

Nobody will know the difference,

right? I mean,

you all know that.

And so we get done in an hour.

It just moves very quickly
around here.

810 till a little after nine,

and then we come back at
925 till almost 1030,

and then 1040 to 1150.

We get a lot done,

right?

And I have people,

a lot of times that I meet
and I talk to and I go,

all right,

well. And sometimes we talk about
what's in the message,

what's in the text,

what the Bible says,

what God wants us to hear.

And then sometimes the conversation
just goes completely to whether or

not the 49 ers got a coach or.

I don't know.

I'm trying not to pay attention
to some of that stuff.

But you see what I mean?

We can be distracted by the volume,

and I don't mean the loudness.

I mean the amount of stuff that goes
on in the world around us.

And it just draws our attention away when
what God is saying to us is pay

attention to what's important,

pay attention to the priorities.

See, we live in such a.

The words affluent.

We look around our culture
in this nation,

we go,

wow, all the stuff.

People who come here from
other places go,

wow, all the stuff.

Right. It's very easy for us to be
distracted by the stuff or to be

distracted, quite honestly,

just by the conversation
that's going on.

I purposely,

every Sunday morning,

just to see what's in the news.

I'll flip through headlines
on this app that I have,

and I just flip through the headlines
just to see what the general news

population is talking about.

Right? All right.

Are you all ready for
the next illness?

Because they're talking about
it just so you know.

Y'all ready to watch men swim
in the women's olympics?

It's going to court.

You see,

if you just read the headlines,

you sit there and go,

I mean,

in Christ,

when we follow Jesus,

we read the headlines and go,

oh, my.

Right.

Or do we read the headlines?

And then that becomes
our conversation?

Rather than Jesus is the
center of my being,

he is the focus of who I am,

you see?

What do you shout in your community.

What do you talk about when you have
the opportunity to talk about it?

For this reason,

this is what the writer
is referring to here,

because if you go back to the back,

we've talked about Jesus,

the Son,

being the last day's message of God,

that it's through the Son that God has
spoken and delivered the message

of the good news,

the gospel,

eternal life and salvation.

The angels and the prophets are the ones
who communicated the covenant of

the Old Testament.

But they're just messengers.

They're not the son.

We live in a time,

and we'll call it in certain
faith traditions,

where all of a sudden,

man, if you can claim the
name prophet man,

you get a pedestal.

Be careful.

So when I look at this thing,

I'm going,

all right,

what do we say?

Are they not all ministering spirits
sent out to serve those who are

going to inherit salvation?

So that last verse of chapter one,

verse 14,

right there,

is talking about the angels,

right. And the prophets,

because what we're about to focus on
and understand what God wants us to

hear more than all of that.

Now, I want to use this comparison.

You ready?

What we do in this hour this morning
is more important that you hear and

pay attention than all of that you
might read in the newspaper,

than all of that you might
watch on the television,

than all of that conversation
you might have around the,

what is it now?

They don't have them bottles
of water anymore.

So I mean,

what, the water cooler?

I don't know.

But what we talk about in these next
20 minutes is more important than

anything you can hear going
on outside the walls.

All right?

Because that's what he says.

He says the angels even,

are they not just ministering spirits
sent out to serve those who are

going to inherit salvation?

For this reason,

we need to make sure we're the
ones inheriting salvation,

folks. That's why there's
a warning here.

That's why there's a warning.

Don't miss out on the salvation.

That's the point of today's message.

Don't miss it.

Don't get distracted by the noise.

Don't get drawn in or pulled into
the cultural conversation that's

debating what God has already said is
false because it's going on out

there, y'all.

For this reason,

we must pay attention all the
more to what we have heard.

That's the gospel.

Now, because we're going to get to that
in this text so that we will not

drift away.

It's really easy for us to
walk out of this room,

when we've paid very close and specific
attention to what God is saying

in his word and then get outside of
here when this is kind of like a

stewing pot.

We love each other.

We hug each other's necks,

we shake hands,

we welcome people,

man, this is a place where it just kind
of just keeps folding over and

folding over that we want
to be about Jesus,

we want to talk about Jesus,

we want to love Jesus,

we want to love each other.

And it just keeps.

We're going to remind you of that.

But there's a message that
the world needs to hear.

But there's a message that if we're
not paying attention to it,

we'll get distracted by the world.

I don't want to drift
away from that.

When I walk out of here,

what should I be talking about?

Should be talking about Jesus.

The world needs Jesus.

I've told this story before because
it's always funny to me.

I went to seminary.

Now, my upper education theological training
took place in New Orleans,

Louisiana. And every time
I tell people that,

they go,

what? New Orleans Baptist
theological Seminary.

It's on Gentilly Boulevard
down in New Orleans.

And it's all right.

I had a great education,

made a lot of friends.

You know,

I enjoy music of all kinds,

right? And so jazz music
is pretty cool to me.

And when you got those street bands
playing down in the historical

district here,

French Quarter,

I'd go and listen down there
in the French Quarter,

and I'd just be listening
to music and stuff.

One day I was standing there
listening to music,

and this was back in the old days,

so it wasn't quite as dangerous
as it is now.

But this guy kind of
got up beside me.

He goes,

cocaine. And I went,

Jesus, man,

he was gone.

I mean,

I looked up,

that dude was gone.

You see,

that's the message the
world needs to hear,

Jesus. Quite honestly,

folks, when we allow ourselves to
be drawn into what argument,

debate over things that the Bible
has already said is decided.

When we get drawn into that,

folks, that's distraction.

I mean,

I'm not going to sit down.

All right,

so some of you all can
get mad about this.

You want to,

but remember,

you got to forgive me.

I'm not going to sit down and have a debate
whether a man's a woman and a

woman's a man.

I'm not.

Because God already said
what is and what isn't.

I'm not going to have
that debate with you.

Don't invite me out there to say,

well, psychologists say,

because I'm going to say,

yeah, but God said,

well, the culture says,

well, God said,

I'm just not going to do it.

And then I'll just grin at you and go
because I'm not going to argue,

not going to argue with you about it
because I'm going to pay attention

to what God has said first before
I listen to all that trash.

And yes,

you heard me call it trash.

For if the message spoken through
angels was legally binding,

now understand what is
he saying there?

What he's saying there is the legally
binding this justice system of God

means is that the message,

the covenant that God established with
his people throughout the Old

Testament was legally binding,

meaning punishable by
death if broken.

You understand that's what
he's saying right there.

Because then he goes on to say,

and every transgression and disobedience
received a just punishment.

How will we escape if we neglect or ignore
such a great salvation or the

message of God's salvation that he has
presented to us through his son

Jesus? If the prophets and angels
message was legally binding and

punishable by death,

then what happens if we ignore
what Jesus said?

See, we got greater promise in the
new covenant than they actually

realized in the old covenant.

Guess what?

There's also a greater punishment
in the new covenant.

Because what the new covenant
punishment is,

is spiritual death.

Remember when,

remember the encouragement.

Don't fear those who can
merely kill the body.

Fear the one who can take the soul.

This salvation had its beginning when
it was spoken of by the Lord.

See, what have we heard?

Pay attention all the more
to what we have heard.

What have we have heard?

We've heard what Jesus
came preaching.

We've heard the good news.

We've heard the gospel.

We've heard the kingdom,

we've heard heaven.

We've heard salvation through the shed
blood of Jesus Christ and victory

through the resurrection.

You see,

and to minimize that or to somehow
make that just one in the list of

priorities of our lives,

folks, is to neglect this
great salvation.

Christ preached it.

And then the writer goes on saying,

it was confirmed to us by
those who heard him.

And what that's referring to
is that as Christ preached,

the apostles went out preaching,

delivering the message that
Christ had delivered.

I always loved that.

When I was coming through
school and everything,

everybody talked about Josh McDowell.

Josh McDowell wrote a book.

It was a little evangelism book.

And chapter three or four
was entitled Lord,

liar or lunatic.

Jesus is either the Lord
who he says he is,

or he lied,

or he's just crazy.

See, by faith,

we trust him as Lord.

Now we've know,

I've been using this idea that God is
making his case for the messiah to

the hebrew people through
the book of Hebrews.

And some of you know,

Strobel's book,

the case for Christ,

they made it into a movie.

You see,

it's interesting to me that those who
are diametrically opposed to the

message of the gospel undertake
to disprove the gospel.

And then all of a sudden we have this
incredible transformation that

takes place.

They're trying to prove that Jesus
wasn't who he said he was,

and all of a sudden they're like,

oh, no,

I'm following Jesus.

Right? See,

the world we live in wants
to deny Christ.

The world we live in doesn't want
to submit and surrender to the

authority that God has over us.

They don't want anybody to be able to
tell them what they can and can't

do.

But God's called us to
surrender to him.

There's a message that
God's preached.

There's confirmation of the message through
the folks who have preached

it. And then God added
his own proof.

This is the one that a lot of
times I grew up in the,

went to college in the.

Remember the tv preacher guys,

right?

See, some of you going to
get mad now for sure,

but you remember those guys that got
a lot of attention because they

could do miracles.

Do you know?

They're not the ones
doing the miracle.

God's the one that does
the supernatural,

not mankind.

Don't get distracted by the man.

See, that's the caution.

God confirmed his own message,

testified to the message of the gospel
by signs and wonders and various

miracles and distributions of gifts from
the Holy Spirit according to his

will. Not my will.

I can't just choose.

Okay, let's do a miracle.

I can't do that.

Only God does that.

God's the one that has proven
himself over and over again.

See? So let's talk about
it a minute.

Think about it.

What are some of the things
we talk about?

Think of the things that
are important to you.

Hi, parents.

Do you talk about your children?

Of course you do,

man, I'm proud.

I don't got one,

but I'm proud.

What else do we talk about?

Do we talk about,

I mentioned several weeks ago,

flower bed,

even though I don't have any.

I mean,

I did,

but not really.

You know what?

If it doesn't live,

it ain't my fault.

We talk about the things we do.

We talk about the things we produce.

We talk about our activities
and our hobbies.

And we talk about where we've been and
we talk about all kinds of things.

We talk about our teams and we talk about
our workplace and we talk about

all that stuff.

And quite honestly,

talking about those things
is not wrong.

It's not sin to talk about those things
unless you get into what the

Bible calls,

course, jesting,

because that becomes sin.

But, folks,

do we talk about those things more
or less than we talk about Jesus?

See? Wow.

Does the world need to know,

and I'll be honest,

let's go ahead and say this.

Does the world need to know
how great your kids are?

See, I'm being offensive now,

right?

Go ahead.

Y'all can admit it.

I am offending you.

Here you go.

I'll even be more offensive.

There's a statement that a few folks
throughout these 40 years of

ministry, that when people say it,

I cut them off.

Now, see,

I'm warning you all,

so don't ever say this to me because
I'm going to cut you off.

When you do,

they'll come up and say,

oh, you'll appreciate this.

And I go,

how do you know?

You don't know if I'll
appreciate it or not,

right?

Maybe what you're about to share with
me is something God wanted you to

know for your sake,

for you,

and you need to pay attention to
it and you need to act on it.

But you come up and say,

well, there was a fellow that used
everything he said to me.

You prefaced it with those words.

And I finally told him,

I go,

well, no,

not that one.

I don't appreciate that one.

Sorry.

See, here's the.

The point is we need to find a way to
talk about Jesus everywhere that we

are in our lives,

in our daily walk.

We need to find a way to talk about
Jesus with what our coworkers,

our neighbors,

our family.

I tell you what,

that's the one that really troubles me
on a lot of occasions is because I

have people who will say,

you know,

the hardest people to talk about
Jesus with your family.

I always go,

okay, let's find out.

Why. Do you live it
in front of them?

Or do they see something else?

Now he's gone to Medlin,

right? See,

if we're living Jesus in front of our
family and our coworkers and our

friends and our neighborhood
and wherever we are,

then that is the stepping stone to
be able to talk about Jesus,

live it out.

And then you get to tell people
why you live that way.

We must pay attention all the more to
what we have heard so that we will

not drift away.

God has given us salvation.

Jesus preached the message.

The apostles preached the message.

God testified to the message.

We've got to deliver the message.

Okay? Don't miss it.

Don't miss the salvation that God's
given to you and the fact that he

wants you to give it away.

Give Jesus to the people
in your life.

Give Jesus to the people
you run into.

Okay? If you don't know Jesus,

meet him this morning.

We'll introduce you.

You need Jesus more than you need
anything else in your life.

You need Jesus.

Okay. Pray with me.

Father, I thank you for today and thank
you for what you're accomplishing

and what you're doing.

I thank you,

God, that there is a very clear warning
in this passage right here.

God, you're warning us that there are
consequences to neglecting our

salvation. God,

help us to live it.

God, help us to talk about it.

God, help us to share it
with other people.

God, I thank you for every person
in this room this morning.

I thank you for those who are listening
and paying attention.

I thank you,

God, that as we leave here,

we leave with a commission to go share
good news with a world that needs

it. So,

God, help us not to be neglectful of
what you've done in us and for us,

and help us to go share
it with others.

Jesus shared it,

the apostles took it and shared it.

People of the first century
took it and shared it.

The writer of Hebrews explained
it for us by your own words,

God. So,

God, help us to pay attention,

help us to live it,

and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.