The Gathering Surf City

I feel as though I warned you last
week and you showed up anyway,

just so you know.

Because now we're going to dig into
the struggle against sin.

Cause that's where I
left it last week.

Remember the Hebrews,

chapter twelve,

verse four,

that begins with the words,

in struggling against sin,

you have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding blood.

I thought about that this
week while I was shaving.

Whiskers cannot be considered sin,

even though I bleed often.

Okay, so we're gonna dig
into this a little bit.

Remember, we've been in the book
of Hebrews for all year.

We've been under the topic of
the object of our faith.

And Jesus is indeed the
object of our faith.

And everything about the book of Hebrews
points us to Jesus and points us

to God's design,

his provision,

his plan,

not simply for what we refer
to as salvation,

but actually,

actually our redemption.

God had a purpose,

a plan,

a design to buy us back from sin,

death, and hell.

All right,

so this is what Hebrews is about.

It keeps pointing us to it.

And so we're going to
dig into that today.

I'm going to read the passage,

but there's a couple things
I got to tell you.

Baptism today.

Remember that today is the day that they're
going to do the gathering 101

class. Gathering 101 is just an
informational class kind of.

It goes over our priorities.

It goes over what is basically the
four tenets of our covenant,

what we refer to as covenant
relationship,

here in the gathering.

And that meeting is going to take place
at twelve noon in the fellowship

hall. If you're interested,

show up.

They got lunch.

But if you didn't sign up,

then somebody's going to eat napkins.

But it's okay.

There's a restaurant down the street
if you're really hungry.

Second thing is we're going to
meet for baptism at 1245.

After I get done preaching.

During the last worship
gathering at 1150,

we're going to meet here to
get ready for baptism,

and then we'll cross over to the ocean
and we'll do baptism right after

that.

So I always say,

1245, you want to attend baptism,

be on the beach at 1245.

Cause if we go over from here
and you show up at one,

you might miss it.

We had folks that were supposed
to take pictures one time,

show up,

and we were done,

and I wasn't doing it again.

So, plus,

we've seen a whole lot since
the first of the year.

We noticed back in January and February
that we were having seating

issues.

We had full rooms during
925 and 1040.

And even then back in January
and February,

we were having parking lot issues.

And so that's.

And in the summer just makes
that much more fun.

So what we're going
to do is kind of,

we're going to ask somebody to step up
and take a position of service for

the kingdom of God as parking coordinator
to help develop and schedule

teams to coordinate parking.

The parking coordinator doesn't
have to do it all,

but what I've been telling folks is
the parking people are really just

outdoor greeters.

Right? Folks,

pull up.

You just get to greet people.

That's what you get to do.

And then,

too, because we started doing a lot,

anybody do flooring?

We've been doing lots of meals,

and we've got a lot of different kitchen
teams and different ministries

within the gathering,

have their own kitchen teams,

but just want to try to find somebody
to be willing to kind of coordinate

kitchen stuff.

So if you're willing to do
either of those things,

please let me know.

All right.

Hebrews twelve,

413. Read it on the screens or.

Yeah, on the screens or
read it in your Bible.

If you want to read it in a Bible,

there might be one in a
chair in front of you.

Here we go.

Verse four.

In struggling against sin,

you have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding your blood.

And you have forgotten the exhortation
that addresses you as sons,

my son,

do not take the Lord's discipline lightly
or lose heart when you are

reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he
loves and punishes every son he

receives. Endure suffering
as discipline.

See the connection he's
making there?

Get ready.

He's coming.

God is dealing with you as sons.

For what son is there that a
father does not discipline?

But if you are without discipline,

which all receive,

then you are illegitimate
children and not sons.

Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline
us and we respected them.

Shouldn't we submit even more to the
father of spirits and live for they

disciplined us for a short time based
on what seemed good to them,

but he does it for our benefit so
that we can share his holiness?

No discipline seems enjoyable
at the time,

but painful later on.

However, it yields the peaceful fruit
of righteousness to those who have

been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your tired hands
and weakened knees and make

straight paths for your feet so that
what is lame may not be dislocated,

but healed instead.

Let's pray.

God, we just bow before
you right now.

Just giving you thanks,

praising you,

God, that we get to gather,

that we get to come and just greet one
another and love on each other.

And know God,

that as we meet,

you meet with us in this place.

And yet God,

as we meet,

we want to hear from you,

we want to hear your voice,

we want to acknowledge and
recognize your words.

And God,

we want it to have an impact on us.

We don't want to do this without,

without reason.

We want to gather and be
changed as you speak.

So God,

help us to hear you.

Help us to get a better
glimpse of you.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. So the book of Hebrews,

and I'm going to do the quick outline
of the first ten and a half

chapters. What is pointed to and what
is revealed is that Jesus is the

object of our faith.

He is the Son and he is the
heir of all things.

He is the creator of all things.

And he is the sustainable sustainer
of all things created.

Okay? This is all in the
first parts of Hebrews.

He is the exact expression
of the essence of God.

This is a statement of Jesus deity.

He is the essence of God.

He is the radiance of
the glory of God.

So when we see the glory
of God shining,

that is Jesus,

the radiance of God.

He is the king,

the king of kings.

He is the highest priest
of all priests.

The covenant of the Old Testament
points to Jesus.

The tabernacle,

the temple point to Jesus.

The sacrificial system
point to Jesus.

The law of the Old Testament
points to Jesus.

Everything about the Old Testament
points to Jesus.

Okay? The New Testament,

now this is where we
get to be excited.

The New Testament reveals Jesus,

shows us Jesus,

gives us his life and
the things he did.

I love seeing the nuance of the things
that Jesus did in relationship and

interaction with his disciples and the
people that followed along with

him and that sort of thing.

I just think it's the coolest thing
to study the life of Jesus.

And then you study the
called out ones,

the congregation,

the body of Christ,

the fellowship of believers
that Jesus said,

I will build the body of Christ.

Right? So we've walked all through that
and then we get to this book of

Hebrews. And I've admitted before that
I never really studied it piece by

piece, taking it apart like we have
over the last eight months.

But, but to be honest with you,

I look at it,

I go,

man, this ties it all together.

This is cool.

But now we get to the
by faith part of it.

Chapter eleven says,

by faith,

by faith.

By faith.

Moses lived by faith.

Abraham lived by faith.

Abel lived by faith.

These men lived lives of faith,

and they are examples and witnesses to
us of what God does when we live

by faith.

And so the challenge to us
is to live by faith,

walk by faith,

right? That's what we're
being called to.

So I made the point of today's message
is to walk in righteousness.

Walk in righteousness because that's
the father's expectation.

That's our father's expectation.

So the question we have,

do we have the ability to
choose righteousness?

See, I believe we're being called
as followers of Christ,

as those who have surrendered ourselves
to the person and work of Jesus

Christ, to put off unrighteousness.

Not to make excuses for
unrighteousness,

to put off unrighteousness.

I'm really loud,

Chris. Can you back me down
just like a fraction?

Thank you.

Thank you,

Steve. Appreciate that.

I'm going to be loud anyway because
my voice came back this week,

just so you know.

But to put off unrighteousness,

and I believe that means we are to personally
put off unrighteousness.

But our struggle is against
unrighteousness.

Okay. We are actually in a struggle
against unrighteousness.

I think,

personally, my own personal
battles with my pride,

my anger and lust or whatever.

Yeah. Those are things that
I am personally day in,

day out,

morning, noon and night.

I am at war with in my own life.

And yet I look at the
world around me,

the society,

the community,

the culture.

Guess what?

I am personally at war with unrighteousness
in our culture.

Okay.

All right.

Some of you have been waiting
for this message.

So we are to run the race like
we mean to run the race.

That's what we're told in the
beginning of chapter twelve.

Therefore, since we also have such
a large cloud of witnesses,

those who have shared with
us their lives by faith,

they're surrounding us.

Let us lay aside every hindrance and
the sin that so easily ensnares us.

So not only do we have the witness
of those who went before us,

but we become the witnesses
to living by faith.

To those around us.

They're the witnesses.

What?

See, I got too loud,

didn't I?

All right,

see, they're the witnesses
to our lives by faith.

They're watching us.

Do you stand up for righteousness?

Do you war against unrighteousness?

And are you willing to let the world
see you oppose unrighteousness?

Yeah, run the race like you mean it.

And fix your eyes on Jesus,

because he has authored,

completed, finished
what is our faith.

He has redeemed us.

It is finished.

It has been paid.

All right,

so discipline.

How many of you saw me run up
the aisle a minute ago?

How many of you said,

pastor really shouldn't
be running in church?

Anybody think that?

My mom used to get on my case.

So, parents,

when you see your child
run in church,

just think he might one
day be the pastor.

Discipline, obedience,

right? That's what we're called to.

This whole passage is a reference
to discipline and ultimately our

obedience, because this gets into
what is the father's discipline?

What is the father's expectation
of our lives for?

Consider him who endured such hostility
from sinners against himself so

that you won't grow
weary and give up.

That's the statement about Jesus.

And then I,

we jump into chapter,

into verse four.

In struggling against sin,

you have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding your blood.

And I said last week that that is an encouragement
until you consider the

word yet.

And I started thinking,

even after last week,

I started thinking to myself,

all right,

how will my struggle against sin result
in blood from shaving absolutely

nothing.

But if I am going to encounter
and oppose unrighteousness,

how might I bleed?

Could I get attacked for opposing
unrighteousness?

Could I find myself up against
a system of unrighteousness?

Could I find myself in
opposition to a.

An ideology of unrighteousness?

Might I find myself in
opposition to a,

dare I say,

party of unrighteousness?

I don't know,

folks. God has called
us to righteousness.

So if you consider verse
three and say,

why were sinners hostile to Jesus?

Consider he.

Excuse me,

consider him,

right, who endured such hostility
from sinners against himself?

What did he do?

He pointed out the sin
in his world culture.

He pointed out the sin that was going
on in his own people and got

crucified for it.

And what this is telling us is
you've not yet been crucified.

But it's coming.

That's the yet part of it,

folks. If we take a real stand
against unrighteousness,

we're going to encounter opposition.

If we obey our father,

we will face hostility.

If you obey God,

you're going to find some hostility.

Okay, so if we face hostility,

what will we do?

Look down at the very
end of the passage.

Will we grow weary and give up?

That was at the end of the
passage last week,

so that you won't grow
weary and give up.

The end of verse three.

And then down at the bottom
of this passage,

it says,

make straight paths for your feet so
that the what is lame may not be

dislocated but he'll instead,

what he's saying right there is watch
for the obstacles to your walk.

Watch for the obstacles in
the race that you run.

Avoid the obstacles so you don't trip
and blow out a knee or something.

We are to walk in righteousness.

That's what God's called us to.

God is using our suffering
in this life,

in this world.

And remember,

this is a first century world.

This is not a 21st century world.

There's a first century world.

He says,

look, endure suffering is discipline
because God's dealing with you as

sons.

So if you are living righteousness and
you face opposition and you face

hostility, and you,

to the point of blood,

recognize God's allowing your suffering
for your own discipline makes you

stronger. Okay?

So as I was working through
this thing,

I was like,

whoa, this is going to get specific.

So, discipline.

The word discipline comes from the
same root as the word disciple.

We're called to be disciples.

We're called to follow.

Well, the first word or the first definition
of disciple is learner.

It assumes learning by following like
I'm following Jesus and learning of

Jesus so that I can be
more like Jesus.

And so God uses discipline and refining
to make me more like Jesus.

So if I am encountering hardship,

opposition, struggle,

if I am encountering hostility toward
me for living out righteousness,

God is using that hostility toward
me or that struggle toward me to

refine me to be more like Jesus.

Okay. All right.

Discipline is also correction.

I have told y'all time and time again
my childhood church experiences,

right?

Can I just tell you.

And I've told this story,

and parents love this story.

Kids hate this story,

but here it goes.

We had these big,

tall steps out in front of our church
where I was growing up,

and right beside the steps were these
great big old shrub bushes.

They were such big shrub bushes that they
could hide anything behind them.

Now, you're already thinking,

what did that mischievous little bobby
hide behind the shrubbushes?

It wasn't me.

You know what?

I'd been taken out of that church and
behind those shrubbushes for a

totally different reason sometimes,

right, we had these slick pews.

There were no cushions back then.

Suffering was just sitting
on the hard wood.

But they were,

like, oiled,

which made perfect slides.

And so I'd go.

I'd push off from one end and go,

whoosh. Right up to the
point of my heart,

right?

See, discipline is sometimes
correction.

So if we step out of line and we go
with unrighteousness or we go with

the world,

we find ourselves in opposition
to God and walking by faith,

therefore, we must be corrected.

And guess what?

God will correct.

God will also discipline
by correcting.

So what has God required of us?

In one corinthians eleven,

we know that we are told
to examine ourselves.

Do you take a healthy examination
of your life,

in a sense,

on a daily basis to where
you consider,

all right,

well, what is sin in my life?

What is preventing me from drawing
near to God with boldness and

confidence? That's what we're
encouraged to in Hebrews.

See, we step out of line.

God corrects,

therefore we are called
to live righteousness.

We're called to denounce
unrighteousness.

Our correction ready for this
is a message to the world.

When God corrects our sin.

That's a message to the
world to define sin,

to steer clear of sin,

not to play in the sin,

not to abide in the sin,

get out of it.

So that goes back to the question,

do we have the ability to
choose righteousness?

Absolutely. We have the ability
to choose righteousness.

God's identified righteousness.

We just make excuses for
our unrighteousness.

And then I started to consider it because
I have people all the time say,

Pastor Bobby,

would you please pray
with me about this,

or would you please pray
with me about that,

or, I'm struggling here.

I'm struggling there.

So then I went to some
scripture passages.

You ready?

This idea of,

if your right hand offends you,

no, that's left.

Cut it off.

Better to enter eternity without a right
hand than to not enter eternity

with Jesus,

right? Whoo.

So I hear this word all the
time from politicians.

You ready?

Was Jesus just using hyperbole?

Don't you hear that?

Now, how many of you hear that
a lot on the news these days.

Hyperbole.

Was he speaking metaphorically as
to the extent of avoiding sin?

I think he was.

I think he was.

But here you go.

Let me make it more
practical for you,

because I'm going to say this,

and I'm going to say it to some.

Everything I'm going to say,

I thought about it ahead of time.

This is not impulsive,

folks. If your computer offends
your righteousness,

you probably need to throw it away.

If your computer offends
your righteousness,

then you probably need
to get a flip phone.

Okay? If youre romance novel
offends your righteousness,

then you probably need
to throw it away.

You see,

I told you all y'all didn't want
to come back this week.

You see,

we are called to walk
in righteousness.

Not make excuses for unrighteousness
in our lives.

I remember telling young staff
people over the years,

make sure that wherever your computer
is set up that it faces the door to

the room so that anybody that walks
in the room can see what's on your

computer screen.

Okay? In an office setting,

computers face the door,

not the back of the computer.

Right? Very practical stuff.

Because guess what?

If it offends you,

cut it off.

You see the other.

Abstain from the appearance of.

I wrote notes on my hands,

y'all.

Abstain from not evil.

Abstain from the appearance of evil.

Don't. Don't even open the door for somebody
to consider that you might

be doing something evil
comes from one,

thessalonians five.

Right?

Abstain from even the
appearance of evil.

Whoa. That means you
see evil coming,

man, you run the other way.

Finally, make no provision
for the flesh.

No provision for the flesh.

That means don't plan.

Don't make a plan for your sin.

Like, I'm gonna go hang
out here and.

Okay, I have to go with the thought,

oh, I'm gonna go drink this,

or I'm gonna go hang out
with this person,

or I'm going to go do that.

See, I've always told you I won't
make sin lists for you,

but I'm telling you,

God gave me a sin list this week.

Discipline is obedience,

discipline is correction.

And discipline is.

Press on.

Press on.

Guess what?

If we press on in righteousness,

we are going to face opposition.

Now I'm going to speak to the ideology
I referred to a minute ago because

I did some reading this week.

I wanted to get a little bit better
acquainted with Karl Marx.

How many of you know the guy?

Right? I love the nuance
of our vocabulary.

You know what?

I think of myself as progressive
in some ways,

but not marxist.

Okay? You know where this is going.

You know that Karl Marx called for
the destruction of five things,

called for the destruction
of family.

He called for the destruction
of individuality,

personhood, you know,

the imago dei that God made us into,

right? He called for the destruction
of eternal truth.

Jesus said,

I am the way,

the truth and the life.

Carl Marx called for the destruction
of eternal truth.

Karl Marx called for the destruction
of national identity,

of nations.

Karl Marx called for the destruction
of history or the past.

Folks, if you don't have the eyes to
see what's going on in our culture,

our society,

our nation,

then come and ask me,

and I will tell you.

I will tell you individually
what I see,

okay? Because I see the destruction
of families,

I see the death of innocent unborns,

okay? I see the destruction of personhood
as God designed it,

planned it,

and provided for it.

See?

I see the destruction of
the value of humanity.

I found it,

y'all. I think that's a sign.

I'm going to sound like a squeaky floor
on these things over the next few

weeks, because this is the summation
of the book of Hebrews and the

message of God,

y'all. I see the denial of eternal
truth in our nation,

that God doesn't matter.

He's not truth.

There is no such thing as
a God who has a design,

purpose and plan.

I see the destruction of nations,

our nation.

And I see the rewriting of
history to accommodate,

to accommodate people's desire,

will and agenda.

Folks, if I.

And I'm not talking about y'all,

I'm not.

This is not a call to
go out on whatever.

I intend to oppose unrighteousness
in our culture.

And if I bleed,

I bleed.

You have not yet struggled right against
sin to the point of bleeding.

That's a perfect picture to Jesus standing
against a religious hierarchy

and a government empire.

And he was crucified.

And then he said to us,

before he was crucified,

he said,

you know,

the world hates me.

Don't you think they're
going to hate you too?

So, folks,

I remember one preacher
said one time,

and it was very convicting to me.

You ready?

If you're loved by the world,

hmm, you better watch out.

Okay, so let me summarize in the last
three minutes that we have you

ready? It's all about Jesus,

folks. If you can't fix
your eyes on Jesus,

that's a work that's ahead of you.

To fix your eyes on Jesus.

He is the author,

the finisher,

the perfecter of our faith.

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

Stand for righteousness.

Oppose unrighteousness.

Stand against unrighteousness.

Live by faith.

That means you've got to show
the people closest to you,

the people in the outlying rings
of your relationships,

what it means to stand tall,

to stand boldly for the righteousness
of God against everything else,

because the world is the pressure against
the righteousness of God.

All right,

all right.

Do you know Jesus this morning?

See, we celebrated yesterday.

I can tell this story,

can't I,

Tim?

We celebrated yesterday at 11:00 I
don't even know how old she was.

She's a resident down at Woodbury.

But over the past few weeks,

as Tim has been leading the
gathering at Woodbury.

That's what I'm gonna call it
the gathering at Woodbury.

Tim's been leading the
worship down there,

and she kind of worked her way up the
hall to the hallway and started

coming to worship.

And sometime this week or sometime
in the last several days,

she trusted Jesus for salvation.

And they called me and they said,

bobby, can we do a.

Tim's already been doing
baptism at Woodbury,

but he was out of town.

So they called me and said,

can we do baptism at Woodbury?

And I was like,

yeah, when?

They said,

I don't know.

When can you do it?

I said,

well, I'm not back till Friday.

All right,

let's do it Saturday at eleven.

So we decided to do it
Saturday at eleven.

So Tim decided to come home.

So we had a gathering at
Woodbury yesterday of,

what, 15 people,

about 15 people in this
hydrotherapy room,

because it's one of those
walk in tubs,

and you shut the door and
then you fill it up.

And we baptized a lady there at Woodbury
yesterday because she had

decided to choose Jesus.

Right. And that's something,

folks.

Jesus is our focus.

If we get caught in
the distractions,

focusing on the things in the world,

and I'll go ahead and say it.

If we put anything on the throne
of our lives above God,

be it ideology,

even family,

career, any of those
things above God,

that's idolatry.

And God tells us to
stand against it.

Okay, if you don't know Jesus,

we want to introduce you.

If there's something else you need.

Want to pray about,

I'm going to be down front here.

We're going to sing one more song,

give you the opportunity to respond.

So let's pray.

God, thank you for today.

God, I thank you that your word's
really specific in this struggle

against sin.

And it appears that the promise
is we might bleed.

So, God,

my prayer would be that we
would be fixed in Christ,

God. That we would be
bold in our faith.

And that God,

when the world around
us seems to crumble,

that, God,

we would speak and preach
the foundation,

the rock that is set for eternity.

And that's Jesus.

God, help us to do that,

and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.