The Gathering Surf City

Overcoming man.

That's actually part of the point
of the message today,

so I'm excited about that.

We're still talking about
the object of our faith.

And so,

all till we finish the
book of Hebrews,

guess what?

We're talking about Jesus.

We're talking about Jesus nonstop.

And so it's kind of exciting,

because the things we've learned in
the first two chapters are pretty

important. We learned
that God has spoken.

God speaks.

We learn that Christ,

the anointed one,

the Messiah,

is son and heir and creator
and sustainer,

and the radiance of God's glory and the
exact expression of his essence.

He is God.

We've learned so much about
this person of Christ.

And then in chapter two,

we see the name Jesus,

which communicates the salvation of God
and how we understand this to be

this entire package and the expression
of God's provision of salvation.

And we finally made it
to chapter three.

How about that?

It didn't take but two months
for us to get there.

And so now we begin chapter three.

And this is how it reads.

You ready?

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters
who share in a heavenly calling,

consider Jesus,

the apostle and high priest
of our confession.

He was faithful to the one
who appointed him,

just as Moses was in all
God's household.

For Jesus is considered worthy
of more glory than Moses,

just as the builder has more
honor than the house.

Now, every house is
built by someone,

but the one who built
everything is God.

Moses was faithful as a servant in all
God's household as a testimony to

what would be said in the future.

But Christ was faithful as
a son over his household,

and we are that household if we hold
on to our confidence in the hope in

which we boast.

All righty.

Let's pray together.

God, we give you thanks and
praise this morning.

Just that,

God. Indeed,

as we come together,

we celebrate you.

We sing songs that speak
of who you are.

God, we sing songs that speak
of what you've done.

And, God,

we sing songs that tell of our identity
in Christ and the very fact of

overcoming. Father,

we thank you that you have made provision
and a way for our victory.

So, God,

this morning,

as we look a little deeper
into our savior,

into our Lord,

as we seek better understanding,

God, speak to our hearts.

Let us hear your voice.

Certainly not mine.

But, God,

let us hear what you would have
to say to us this morning,

and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. All righty.

Thoroughly enjoyed,

like I said,

studying this week and
listening this week.

And some people are asking
me about the study.

Dan and I were just talking
this morning.

There are certain things that I listen
to each week and things that I

read and commentaries and things
that I try to pay attention to.

What I really want happening is
I want God to feed the outline.

I mean,

the outline's been in
place for mean.

I outlined this thing back before
the end of the year,

last year.

So I look back at the outline.

Okay, God,

feed me what you want
me to understand,

what you want me to be able to communicate
on Sunday morning.

And so there's some words here
I want to point out to you.

Ready? One is the word holy,

right? That's in there.

One is the word share.

That's in the first verse.

One's the word faithful.

Look at that.

Faithful. And I like,

wow. And we see these words
and we start to realize,

all right,

so God is communicating something
to us about the person,

the work,

the provision that he's
made in his son,

Jesus Christ.

And he wants us to understand it.

He wants us to get a grasp of it.

I remember hearing somebody on
the radio one time said,

words mean something.

Words mean things,

right? If I say holy,

everybody says holy.

And I could ask you all,

like, good Sunday school
class that you are,

I'd say,

all right,

let's define the word holy.

And people go pure,

people go set apart,

people go righteous.

We throw out all those big
words that we know,

okay? They mean holy,

but in practice,

what does it mean?

That the writer of Hebrews is
calling us and his hearers,

all of his hearers,

from then to now,

holy brothers and sisters.

All right,

how about that?

See, in Christ,

you're a holy brother or sister.

Congratulations. You've arrived.

Right?

Think about that a minute.

I mean,

this is the expression of what the
writer is letting us know.

But here's the understanding here.

We need to understand that this is how
God sees us in the shed blood of

Christ, right?

It's not because you're holy.

Sorry. It's because
God made you holy.

It's because God accomplished something
that we cannot accomplish.

All right?

So when we look at these words,

we're starting to go.

So I began to ask myself,

all right,

faithfulness. That faithfulness
thing is a big word,

right? What's faithfulness
look like?

I have a favorite illustration
about faithfulness.

I've shared it before.

It's always fun because
people kind of go,

ooh. I mean,

think about it.

If you're married this morning,

right? This is my favorite
illustration about faith.

But get ready,

here it comes.

If you're married this morning,

let's suppose your spouse walked in
at the end of the day and said,

honey, you'll be pleased.

I was 90% faithful today,

right? I mean,

we'd all go,

yeah, right.

I mean,

think about that a minute.

When we start to consider
faithfulness.

And what it means to be faithful.

And then we read this text
of just six verses.

And we are that household.

I just slobbered on myself,

y'all. I'm going to get excited
for this morning's out.

All right,

here you go.

We are that household of faith.

If we hold on to our confidence and
the hope in which we boast.

Now, that almost sounds like there's something
dependent on us to be that

household of faith.

Like, I've got to somehow hang on.

I got to be holy.

I've got to achieve faithfulness.

In order to be that household
of faith.

But what we're going to find
out is this passage,

like all the other passages
in Hebrews,

is not about you or me or us.

This passage is about Jesus and
what Jesus has done for us.

Okay? Because I got pretty excited
about this this week.

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters
who share in the heavenly calling.

Consider Jesus the apostle and high
priest of our confession.

So what is it that we're looking at?

All right,

so I grew up in a christian home.

I've told y'all that before.

Mom and dad were christians.

My grandmother and grandfather
on my dad's side.

They'd been members of the
same church forever,

right?

Moses left,

and they joined the church
right there in town.

They were members of Cali Self
Memorial Baptist church.

My grandma and granddaddy
sat in the choir.

Granddaddy was a deacon.

And grandma led ladies Sunday
school classes and stuff.

And so that's what I grew up in.

That's the church I most
remember growing up.

And on my mama's side.

My mom and dad's families lived in
the same community for a while.

And had attended the same
church for a while.

My granddaddy was an industrial
engineer of some sort.

He worked at the textile mill.

He was like a supervisor.

Superintendent in the textile mill.

And then God called him to ministry.

And so he went to southeastern seminary
up here in Wake Forest.

And got his bachelor's of divinity.

And became a pastor up here
on Albemarle sound.

Somewhere up in.

Near Little Washington.

Columbia area.

Up in there somewhere.

Somewhere up there.

He was a pastor.

Pastor. Two churches
at the same time.

And things didn't go
real well for mean.

I remember from a very early age that
my granddaddy and my grandma,

they split ways and granddaddy
went one direction,

and grandma went the
other direction,

and yet they still were believers.

They trusted Jesus.

I remember doing my grandfather and first
funeral I ever did was my own

grandfather's funeral
up in Danville,

Virginia, at the little church where
he taught seminary up till he died,

right? I look at my family and I go,

I grew up in a faithful family.

Were they perfect?

No, they weren't perfect,

but they had faith.

They lived their faith.

They practiced their faith.

They were faithful grandparents.

My parents coming out of those families
are faithful parents.

They've loved me and taught me,

and they've shared Jesus with me.

And I look at faithfulness going
back historically in my family,

and, you know,

they got flaws,

right? So when we read these statements
right here that God is referring

to us,

the people who have trusted Jesus,

who have received this salvation
from Jesus as holy.

Brothers and sisters,

we've been set apart for holiness.

Truth is,

we're not holy,

but through the shed
blood of Christ,

we've been set apart in holiness.

God sees us through the sacrifice.

That's what we've been reading about
in chapters one and two,

that God accomplished holiness in
us through the holiness and

righteousness of his son.

And so when I read this,

I'm like,

wow. I remember at the little
church Cali self,

that my grandparents went
to and we grew up in,

and I was one of the little.

Four choir boys.

Boys didn't do choir
when I was a kid,

right?

But the four of us did.

And I thought it was really cool because
it was four boys in the choir

with, like,

26 girls.

I was like,

yay.

I'm not saying I had
an ulterior motive,

but anyway.

But it's funny.

There's one guy that just
always got in trouble,

one of my best friends.

He was in our wedding.

Anyway, he always got in trouble.

He was just always getting
in trouble.

So much so that our youth director,

choir director person,

he started referring to him as St.

Brad. Now,

sometimes Brad watches.

So he's out in Amarillo or somewhere
out in Texas somewhere now.

But sometimes he watches worship.

And so if he watches this morning,

it'd be fun if he hears himself
referred to once again as St.

Brad. But it was the thing.

It was like to call him St.

was Bradto call him,

like, what is the opposite?

Right? So I'm looking at this,

and I'm going,

all right,

God, are you playing a joke on us?

You're calling us holy knowing
that we're not.

And yet God calling us holy because
he's the one that accomplishes our

holiness.

He did it.

You didn't do it.

See, that's going to be really important
when we get down to this,

if we hold on to our confidence,

recognizing that,

yes, we're supposed to
live out our faith.

We're supposed to live the response to
what God has accomplished in us.

But can I just go ahead and tell you
we're not going to make holiness,

okay?

We can live out our faith.

We can let the spirit of God convict
and guide and refine us.

But I promise you,

you can be.

Just think about it.

All right?

Let's say Monday morning.

That's our first day of holiness.

We're going to be holy all day long.

Monday morning,

can I tell you?

Might make it five minutes.

Chances are you're not.

But it's not an excuse.

It's not that God looks at us through
the lens of the shed blood of

Jesus, but then he says,

we are sharers in a
heavenly calling.

Some translations say partners says,

we share in a heavenly calling.

And then he says this.

Think about consider
Jesus the apostle.

Now, apostle means something
specific.

The apostle is the one who is sent
by God with God's authority.

So we see the references here that consider
Jesus the apostle and high

priest of our confession.

So this is the thesis statement of this
passage and the following verses

after it.

We're going to be focusing
our attention on Jesus.

However, let's just mention
Moses a minute,

because verse two,

he says he was faithful to the
one who appointed him,

just as Moses was in all
God's household.

Right? So Moses was faithful.

Moses was faithful.

Thank you.

Hey, we have audience participation.

Very good.

All right.

Moses was faithful.

He was looked upon as
a prophet of God,

one who was sent by God with God's
authority to do what he received,

the law of God.

And he delivered the law
of God to God's people.

See that?

He was faithful in what
God had called him to.

So this makes a statement that Jesus
was faithful to the one who

appointed him,

just as Moses was in
all God's household.

So when we look at this,

Moses was a prophet.

He received the law,

he gave the law,

he lived the law.

He was the one that modeled the
communication with God.

My favorite verse about Moses is in Exodus
33 when it says that the Lord

met, Yahweh met with Moses face to face
as a man meets or talks with his

friend. Wow.

Isn't that incredible?

And we are encouraged to have
that conversation with God.

The intimacy of the fellowship
God's offered us with him,

and we sort of sit back and try to explain
how somehow it just doesn't

work for us.

My prayers don't go through
the ceiling,

or I don't feel like my devotional
life's alive.

We make all the excuses in the world
for why we don't spend the time,

make the effort to meet
in intimacy with God.

Jesus was faithful.

We know that Christ,

the Son,

an apostle,

one sent by God with
God's authority.

So indeed,

Jesus was an apostle.

You see,

he was faithful to the one
who appointed him.

And we know Jesus himself in
the Garden of Gethsemane.

Lord, Father,

if there's any way that this weight,

this burden can be taken from me,

but not my will,

but yours.

God, let me ask you a question.

In your everyday life,

how often do you pray that prayer?

God, I want this.

God, let me have that.

God, can I do this?

But God,

not my will,

but yours.

God, I see people in the world
that have things that I want.

There's things I want to accomplish
in the world.

God, can I do those things?

God, give me those things
yet not my will,

God, but yours.

You see,

amazing that what God's showing us
in Christ and Moses as a know,

that's a theological word.

The typology in scripture that we see
in many individuals in the Old

Testament, we see this
type of Christ,

that there are individuals in the Old
Testament that actually their

lives, their testimony,

their faith,

everything about them point to
the messiah who is to come.

And Moses is this typology
of Christ.

He says,

for Jesus is considered worthy
of more glory than Moses.

Do you know how controversial
that is to say to a Hebrew,

to a jewish person?

Man, Moses was the most revered prophet
in hebrew history and culture.

And now this writer's going.

Now listen,

you know,

Jesus was faithful.

Moses was faithful in
all God's household.

Now that's important.

It's another word that means something
in God's household.

Jesus is considered worthy
of more glory than Moses,

just as the builder has more
honor than the house.

Now, I remember when we were doing the
recordings for gathering in the

word a couple of weeks
ago for this week,

which, let me make a note on that.

If you don't get the gathering
in the word devotionals,

go ahead.

Guess what?

My life has changed.

I don't have to get up at four
in the morning anymore.

Used to I'd wake up at four and didn't
make any sense to go back to sleep

because I'd get up and fix the breakfast
and Eli go to school and Angie

go to work.

And now Eli got married,

moved out,

and so I don't even have
to wake him up anymore.

That's Lillian's job.

Now.

Angie's not working right now,

and so she doesn't really
have to get up.

So guess what?

I don't either.

So, Thursday,

I sent out the gathering in
the word Thursday evening,

but the video is not available
until midnight.

So I called Kyle yesterday
and I said,

Kyle, I said,

can we just go ahead and open
the video about six?

Because I'm not getting up at
four if I don't have to.

So just as soon as I said
that yesterday,

guess what time I woke
up this morning?

Not four,

two. But I was ready for
four when it got there.

So, anyway,

they're going to start going
out in the evenings,

and the videos will be available
the evening before.

But I remember doing this video,

and I remember writing this thing.

I said,

this house they're building,

just like on the other side of
the youth house and stuff,

we used to own that lot,

some of you know,

and we sold it,

like, a year and a half ago or so.

And I knew that the folks
that bought it,

it was a developer.

And I know that when they bought it,

they kind of went online
and on their website,

they put this picture of this
incredible house and said,

coming soon,

kind of thing,

and they put the price down there.

And I was like,

ooh.

Oh, my.

Right now it's still dirt,

right? But,

man, if you can make that house
appear on that lot,

that's going to be incredible,

right? And so we all look
at the house and go,

what an incredible huose.

No, no, no,

Look no.at the guy that
dreamed it up.

The one who dug the hole,

the one who began the building.

See, that's what this
is talking about.

For Jesus is considered worthy
of more glory than Moses.

Just as the builder has
more honor than house.

Moses is in the house,

he's a part of the house.

But Jesus is the creator and
sustainer of the house,

you see?

And so when we look at this,

it's like,

yeah, point to Moses.

We would all hold Moses in
some kind of regard.

He was faithful.

But you know what?

He wasn't perfect.

Moses's holiness was not his own.

He was called by God,

you see?

And so when we start
walking this out,

we say,

now, every house is
built by someone,

but the one who built
everything is God.

So it's really funny.

I don't know if y'all know Larry.

He's back there watching
on the security camera.

Hi, Larry.

He built a house right over there.

So I ride by and see what's new?

As I ride by,

coming to the Gathering,

and I ride by,

and yesterday he's putting down forms
for concrete now for the driveway

and stuff.

And I go,

oh, that's new.

I go,

wow. And it's a curved thing,

man.

They're going to have
a curved driveway.

And I thought,

that's going to be cool looking.

So what do we do?

Do we praise the concrete,

or do we praise the one who thought it
and conceived of it and designed

it and called in the right people at
the right times to do the right

things, to make the house
be what the house is?

See, that's what this is pointing to.

Yeah. Moses was a great guy. We probably
- we might have been friends

with the guy,

I don't know.

But he was in the house.

He wasn't over the house.

See, that's the next thing it says.

Every house is built by someone,

but the one who built
everything is God.

Moses was faithful as a servant in all
God's household as a testimony to

what would be said in the future.

So you could be talking about
Moses and pointing to Jesus.

Now, this is important,

y'all. What I just.

You can be talking about Moses
and pointing to Jesus.

Okay. Then he goes on to say this as
a testimony to what be said in the

future.

But Christ was faithful as
a son over his household.

The heir,

the one who received it all,

the one who created,

sustained, holds it all together.

See, Christ.

See, this whole little six verses,

they just pay attention to Jesus.

Pay attention to Christ
in your life,

folks.

Because then he goes on to say,

and we are that household.

If we hold on to our confidence and
the hope in which we boast.

See, Moses is in the household.

Jesus is over the household.

We are the,

you know,

that's one of those things we point
out and like to point out all the

what.

You know,

we look in the Bible and we say,

oh, Moses was a great man.

David was a great man,

Samuel was a great.

Know. We look at all these
people in scripture,

but they are no greater than
you and I. See? Paul,

Peter, apostles called by God,

sent by God,

redeemed by God,

made holy by God.

You too?

Me too,

right? How many of you remember the.

You gotta be old to remember this.

There was a song that the
Gaithers used to sing.

It went like this.

He's still working on me to make
me what I ought to be.

Took him six days to make
the moon and the stars,

the sun and the earth and
Jupiter and Mars.

How loving and faithful he must be.

He's still working on me see that.

I remember singing that
song as a kid.

It was always cute when
a kid sang it.

You know it.

He's still working on me.

I'm just a big kid.

Sorry. We're the household
that God's building.

But here's the point
of it right here.

Here's the point of it right here.

We live out our faith.

We have trusted Jesus.

We've received salvation in Christ.

We didn't do the work.

We can't do the work.

It is faith,

and it is trusting Jesus that
produces work in us.

Right? Work doesn't save us.

Work's the result of what
God has already done.

So that when people point to us,

just like we now,

remember what I said?

We point to Moses,

talk about Moses,

praise what Moses accomplished,

but we point to Jesus.

When people see you,

does it point to Jesus?

Does your life point to Jesus?

Your family?

Let's go ahead and admit all.

We're not going to be here forever.

The people that come after us,

are they going to say,

wow, his life,

her life,

was a testimony for Jesus for
what God did in their life.

See that?

Wow. I look at this thing and I go,

man, this last sentence,

and we are that household.

If we hold on to our confidence and
the hope in which we boast,

this is not a reference,

in fact,

that you can not hold on to it.

Right? I'm one of those folks that believes
you can't undo what God does.

If God saved you,

you can't unsave you.

All right,

I'm just going to go
ahead and tell you,

because if you can undo
what God does,

that makes you stronger than God.

And I don't think that,

but this is a reference that those
of faith will hold on.

You will hold on to
what God has done.

See, Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is our confidence.

It's not my confidence,

because I'll be honest with you.

Some mornings,

and then some mornings I'm late,

I wake up going,

I can't do it,

God. This day's... Ahhh...

I don't want to do today God.

And God goes,

but, yeah,

I got you.

I got you in this day.

I'm holding you in this day.

I'm the one that will get
you through this day.

I had to text that this morning.

A brother of ours,

a member of this gathering,

going through a really
bad time right now.

And he said,

I'm hanging on.

I said,

you know what's interesting is we really
don't understand how we can hang

on until we look back and see that
it was God who was actually,

the one hanging on to us.

See, I read this and I'm encouraged,

because this is not about Moses.

It's not about a house.

It's not about a builder.

It's about Jesus.

It's about what Jesus
has accomplished.

It's about what Jesus has done.

It's about this plan and progress and
this work that God accomplished in

the Son to provide salvation to
give us a confidence and hope.

Do you all know this isn't
encouraging you to boast?

You all know that this is not encouraging
you to be boastful.

Oh, we were laughing about
this yesterday or Friday,

I forget what it was.

We were sitting out here and we were
talking about what it would look

like to.

It wasn't you.

It was somebody else over Yonder.

I'm sorry.

Anyway, we were talking about,

it's kind of like boasting
about your humility.

Boasting about,

look how strong in the faith I am.

It's kind of like,

you want to learn some humility,

go to my humility website.

Right? This ain't about us,

y'all. The book of Hebrews is not about
us except in the fact that God

loved us and redeemed us and paid
the price for who we are.

Man, I love this.

We are that household.

If we hold on to our confidence and
the hope in which we boast.

Jesus is our highest priest.

He is the superior priest.

Priest, scripturally,

is the one who represents us to God.

The prophet represents
God to the people.

The priest represents us to God,

and he is the highest priest.

It's about what he did,

not about what you did or I did.

If you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus.

Pray with me.

Father, I thank you for this morning
and the opportunity we have to

gather in worship.

And God,

you've told us that you meet
with us in this place.

And so,

God, I just praise you
in that and know God,

that you've done some extraordinary
things.

God, we just look at the life and
testimony and ministry of Jesus,

the work accomplished through
his life and God,

the crucifixion and burial
and resurrection,

and the spirit of God given and sent
for us following that resurrection,

and knowing God,

that our confidence is not in what we
do or accomplish or hang on to,

but our confidence is in
that you hold on to us.

So God,

if there's even one person here this
morning that doesn't know you,

never trusted you,

is unsure about your love and the
salvation that you provided.

God, my prayer would be today?

No, not today.

Right now.

God, that they would know you
they'd bow before you.

They'd ask forgiveness.

They'd trust you for
salvation and God.

That our confession would be like
Paul said in romans ten.

Jesus is my lord.

God, thank you that you
loved us first.

God, help us to love you back.

And help us to act like it.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.