The Gathering Surf City

We are continuing in what we've titled
the Gatherings priorities.

And somebody asked me a couple of weeks
ago about they were visiting,

they were here on vacation,

I guess.

And they asked me about the way we do
the messages or the way I do the

messages and plan and prepare
and that sort of thing.

And I was.

I just told them,

I said,

well, right now we're kind of doing some
several weeks in the priorities

of the gathering.

Well, what's important.

What's important to us?

What's important to me
as an individual,

to you as an individual?

What is it that God has sort of given
for us to hold as important to hold

as priorities in our lives?

And so we've kind of focused on
the two great commandments,

as Jesus said in the Gospels,

as well as what we see
in Deuteronomy.

And it's love God with all your heart
and soul and mind and love your

neighbor as yourself.

And those kind of form the first two
priorities of the gathering.

And so we spent two weeks
on loving God,

and we spent two weeks
on living Jesus,

which is going out and loving others
and loving each other.

Anybody know what the title
of today's message is?

Walking Together.

Because that's the third priority
is that we're walking together.

And so it's interesting that this particular
message of walking together,

which can actually kind of be
summed up in the word unity,

sort of falls on the Sunday when there's
a great deal of disunity around

us, wouldn't you say?

So I'm going to say something that
I always say on this Sunday.

I have been accused of not saying.

I've been accused of encouraging
one way or the other,

and I never do that.

I do just say,

pray and vote.

Christians, I believe we are
called to pray and vote.

I've never advocated one
way or the other,

but I do believe God expects us to have
a part in the community and the

society and culture we live in.

So praying Bor.

In Acts,

chapter 2,

46 and 47.

And these will not be the only
verses I read to you,

but they are all that I gave.

Rick, up in the balcony.

It's not a balcony.

Up in the sample,

it says this every day.

They devoted themselves to meeting together
in the temple and broke bread

from house to house,

and they ate their food with
joyful and sincere hearts,

praising God and enjoying the
favor of all the people.

Every day the Lord added to their number
those who were being saved.

All right,

so this is a historical account.

The book of Acts is.

A lot of folks will say it's called
the Acts of the Apostles.

I tend to believe it's the act of God
and how he developed the body of

Christ, the congregation
of believers.

And so let's pray as we
break into this thing.

All right,

God, we praise you,

we thank you.

We just want to give you
glory this morning.

Thank you that you've loved us
and cared for us and God,

that we can indeed sing
and praise you.

Because we have salvation
in Christ alone.

It's by the shed blood of your son,

Jesus, and Jesus,

that you died on the cross.

You gave yourself as
a sacrifice for us.

And so God,

indeed God,

your wrath was satisfied in that.

And so,

God, we just stand this morning
or sit this morning,

or gather this morning just to be able
to praise you and worship you.

And yet,

God, we do indeed want to hold those things
important which are important

to you.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. Alrighty,

so I found this little instruction
in the appendix of the Bible.

Anybody pick up on that?

Okay, there's no appendix
to the Bible,

but here you go.

It says,

believers together.

When believers meet together,

it's called a church.

Once you can afford it,

you name a pastor.

When you get enough money,

you build a building.

And it needs to look like this.

It needs to be pointed.

It needs to have one great big room with
all the chairs aligned in rows.

You got to meet once on Sunday morning
and once on Sunday evening.

And just for fun,

on Wednesdays,

too. Y'all didn't have this in
the appendix of your Bible?

I'm just curious.

You gotta start small groups,

and in some contexts,

you have to call it Sunday school.

Once you get to 150 people,

you need to call an associate pastor.

Once you get bigger than
your building,

you gotta build a bigger building.

And this is the biblical plan,

right? Did God say that's what
we're supposed to do?

No. So when we go back and
look at the Book of Acts,

what we're seeing is not an
instructional message.

It's the account of what God accomplished
when God's people were doing

what God's people do.

And so the first couple of chapters
of Acts are really,

really important to us to understand
that as Christ was resurrected and

asce ascended into heaven,

the body of Christ began to act
like the body of Christ.

They began to hold in priority the
things that were important as the

apostles walked with Jesus.

And so I want to share with
you a couple things.

That passage of verses 46 and 47 is
sort of a summation at the end of

chapter two,

which Just kind of tells you,

and this is what was going on.

This is what was happening.

This is what we were doing.

And you need to just know that this is
how God was working in our midst.

But if you flip back to,

hang on a minute,

gotta lick my fingers because
this paper's thin.

If you think back Acts chapter one,

and we look at verse 12.

After the Ascension,

after Jesus left the apostles
on the mountain,

he says,

then they returned to Jerusalem
from the Mount of Olives,

which is near Jerusalem,

a Sabbath day's journey away,

which means they're only allowed to walk
so many steps on a Sabbath day,

or else it's work.

When they arrived,

they went to the room upstairs
where they were staying.

Peter, John,

James, Andrew,

Philip, Thomas,

Bartholomew, Matthew,

James the son of Alphaeus,

Simon the Zealot,

and Judas the son of James.

Now listen to this.

They all were continually
united in prayer,

along with the women,

including Mary,

the mother of Jesus and his brothers.

And then listen to this,

verse 15.

In those days,

Pastor Peter,

no, just Peter,

stood up among the brothers
and sisters.

The number of people who were
together was about 120.

And said,

Brothers and sisters,

it was necessary that the
scripture be fulfilled.

I'm going to stop right there.

That's mid sentence.

But here's what I want you to realize
is that once Christ had ascended,

his followers had to
take the next step.

They had to do something.

I mean,

there was a lot of.

Between the crucifixion
and the resurrection,

there was a lot of just
discouragement and,

oh, woe is us.

What are we going to do now?

We thought Jesus was the it and
all that sort of thing.

And now they killed him and they buried
him and what are we going to do?

And then he rose from the dead
and he started showing up.

And Corinthians even tells us that he
appeared over 500 people in the

resurrection.

And so there were firsthand accounts
of Jesus resurrection.

And so God's people started saying,

we need to tell people
what Jesus taught us.

We need to tell people what God has
accomplished through his Son,

Jesus, the Christ.

Now, here's what's funny to me and why
I started out with the appendix,

okay? It's interesting over the years
that I've been in ministry and over

the years of my life,

and to just stop and consider what.

And I'm going to use
the word church.

Get ready.

Y'all don't hear me use it often.

What churches make important,

right? The kind of things
that they're willing to,

you know,

the hill to die on.

Sort of thing,

you know,

I mean,

I've heard the jokes about,

you know,

fighting over carpet.

I never did do that myself,

but I've heard the kind
of things about,

you know,

having arguments over the way you decorate
or the way you do anything,

the way you dress,

those kind of things.

And then years ago,

and I came through college
and seminary in the 80s,

you know,

there was a study that I was a part of
that was called the Worship Wars.

And it was all over music.

It was all about music.

And it was this whole big thing
going into the Worship Wars.

And I was like,

excuse me.

You know,

really? I mean.

And then you had those people that
wanted to advocate that,

you know,

because Jesus sang to
a piano and organ,

we need to.

Okay, thank you.

I'm glad you caught up with me.

I appreciate that.

But you see,

my point is that there
are some things,

historically speaking,

if we look at the account
of the body of Christ,

that we recognize as being
very important.

Now, the first one was this
thing that it says.

It says,

when they gathered in
that upper room,

what did they do?

It says they were continually
united.

There's the unity thing in prayer.

They were agreeing together
in prayer.

It wasn't any of that praying against
somebody kind of thing,

right?

And it says.

Tells everybody that was there.

Certainly the apostles were there,

but then the women who were following
Jesus were there.

Mary, Jesus,

mom was there.

All his brothers were there.

As you start to read through Acts,

you start to see the outworking of
how God was working in individual

lives, which allowed for.

I am really loud.

Chris, can you back me up?

No, I'm going to break some little
light bulbs here in a minute.

All right.

But as individuals were
surrendered to God,

at work in their lives
and following Jesus,

they came together to meet together.

And these apostles coming down from
the Mount of Olives and going into

that upper room,

what did they do?

They were continually united
in prayer together.

Why? What were they doing?

They were trying to figure out,

okay, what now,

God? What do we do next?

God, where are we supposed to go?

Jesus led us all these three
years and excuse me.

And now we don't have a leader.

And then it says in verse 15,

then Peter and I always,

okay, Peter stood up among them.

He said,

look, Scripture had to be fulfilled.

The Christ had to suffer,

right? So let's see what
they're devoted to.

Going back to verses 46
and 47 of chapter two,

because this is,

again, like I said,

this is kind of the
summary every day,

right?

Every first day or every Sunday,

Every day they devoted themselves to
meeting together in the temple,

man. The body of Christ came
together every single day.

Now, logistically speaking,

guess what?

It would be tough for us to do
this every day of the week,

right? But what it's saying is they
came together in the temple as a

fellowship.

It doesn't give us,

you know what?

There's no printed bulletin
from those meetings,

okay? It doesn't get there and say,

yes, Peter stood up and
welcomed everyone.

And they sang Amazing Grace
right after that,

you know,

and then they did a whoo.

And everybody greeted each other.

That's not in there.

But what it does say is
they met together.

You see,

God's people,

the body of Christ,

the congregation of believers.

They were devoted to
meeting together.

They were devoted to coming
together as a group,

as a people,

as a congregation.

Every day,

they devoted.

Now, how often do you use
the word devoted?

It's not a common word,

is it?

I'm devoted.

You know,

it kind of goes along with loyal,

doesn't it?

You know,

those kind of words?

What are we devoted to?

What are the kind of things that
we invest ourselves in?

Well, God's people were
meeting together,

though. I look at it,

and I was like,

did they ring a bell,

right?

Did they say,

okay, look,

today we're going to meet
together at nine,

but tomorrow,

because we've got,

you know,

traffic duty,

we're going to meet at 10:30.

You know,

we don't have a clue.

We just only know that they
were meeting together,

meeting together,

meeting together.

They were devoted to
meeting together.

And so that really kind of flies in the
face of Christians in our day and

time that go,

oh, you don't have to go to
church to be a Christian.

And truthfully,

you don't.

But if you are a follower of Christ and
you are devoted and surrendered

to his will,

then the body of Christ
will come together.

We will meet together.

We'll be devoted to coming together.

Because guess what?

Look across the room and go,

oh, hey,

I haven't seen you since
this time last week,

right? You see?

So they were devoted to meet again.

I want to back up just a minute
and look at chapter two,

verse 42,

because it says this.

They devoted themselves to
the apostles teaching.

How about that?

See, that's another little summary verse
of what was happening when they

were meeting together.

Verse 42.

They devoted themselves to
the apostles teaching.

What were the apostles teaching?

The apostles were teaching the kingdom
of God because that's what Jesus

had taught them,

you see.

So when all the people would gather
in the temple courtyard,

because there were Gentiles
in the mix too,

right? When they all gathered
in the courtyard,

the apostles were teaching,

and they were teaching
what Jesus taught.

And Jesus,

it says in the beginning
of the Gospel of Mark,

says Jesus went about teaching the
kingdom of God or the kingdom of

heaven. So see,

Jesus taught God's kingdom.

The apostles were teaching
what Jesus taught.

And so they were all teaching
about the kingdom of God.

How do we be the kingdom of God?

How do we be in the kingdom of God?

How are we a part of God's kingdom?

So they were devoting themselves
to the apostles teaching,

but it goes on,

it says to the fellowship.

So not only were they devoted to hearing
the teaching and receiving the

teaching that the apostles
were offering,

they were devoted to the unity,

the coming together of
the body of Christ.

They were devoted to each other.

See, we've made.

And I'm guiltier than
any of you are,

actually, because I've been in ministry
40 something years now.

But the truth is we've turned worship
and the practice of our faith into

a spectator sport.

I mean,

y'all could just as easily
be watching Clemson lose.

Anyway, sorry,

I'm a little wounded this morning.

But anyway,

well, you know,

we sit in rows and we kind
of watch kind of thing,

you know,

And I remember years ago when there was
a church down in Atlanta area did

a great big Christmas show.

And I think the budget that they put
on for this Christmas show was $4

million.

And great big church buses would roll
in to see this great big church's

big, big Christmas show.

And the pastor,

I was in a conference with
the pastor at the time,

and he said,

he walked out into the parking lot and
he was walking up and down the

rows of the buses and he said,

it dawned on me,

we invest $4 million in tons of time
and energy to entertain Christians.

And he shut it down.

Now, there were some people getting
saved as a result of it.

There were people hearing the
gospel as a result of it.

But by and large,

the effort was an entertainment.

Right?

So why do we gather?

Are we devoted to the meetings?

Yeah, you're here.

Yeah, you showed up on the day that
you rolled back the clocks.

And some showed up early
this morning.

But I won't mention her name,

you see,

and that's kind of the idea,

is that we want to be devoted
to what is important to God.

When we gather in this room,

is it important to God that we pray?

Absolutely, man.

We need to be talking
to God as we gather.

We need to be talking to God when our
eyes are open when we're sitting up

or standing up,

we need to be praising God
when we sing together.

You know,

there was a song years and years ago
called the Audience of One that all

of our songs are really sung to God,

right? So let me finish verse 42 to the
fellowship and to the breaking of

bread and to prayer.

So it gives us four things
in verse 42 that it says,

not instructionally that they did,

but reporting as to what was happening
when they got together.

You see,

so we can take it as instruction.

Yes, we should be being
taught and teaching.

We should be doing those things.

We should be devoted to one another
in the fellowship and loving each

other. That fellowship is a koinonia
word that's bearing one another's

burden. You see,

we should be doing those things.

We should be breaking bread.

You know,

it's always funny to me to talk to different
churches or go to different

churches that eat because they
all claim to eat the best.

Do you know that every church
I've ever been in,

oh, we know how to eat.

And I go,

yeah, that's obvious.

I should not say things like that.

But I generally do.

But you see my point.

You know,

fellowship meals,

I think they're important.

They're disarming,

they break down barriers.

They let us get acquainted around.

You know,

it's like I did the.

He ain't in here now.

But anyway,

I did the.

I got to hang out with the senior
adults Friday for the luncheon.

And as I was fixing my plate,

right, fixing my plate,

they had this grabber for the salad.

It was a thing.

It was like a scissor grabber thing.

And so I reached down and grabbed
a big old thing of the salad,

and I was going to put
it on my plate,

and I looked up and noticed there
was a camera pointed at me.

So I went.

And they got it on.

They got it on a picture.

So we'll probably see that one day,

but it's okay.

But you see,

my point is meeting together around
food is a good thing.

Breaking bread together.

And then it says prayer.

And then we get to the end of the chapter
where we're looking at verses

46 and 47.

It says every day.

There again is the everyday.

They devoted themselves to meeting
together in the temple.

They broke bread from
house to house.

Now, there are those that will say
that as the body of Christ got

together, they celebrated what they
had participated with Jesus in as

communion, the Lord's Supper,

Some traditions call it Eucharist and
all kind of different things.

But the idea was is that it's a time
for the body of Christ to remember

that Jesus died in our place.

Right? That's what it signifies,

that's what it represents,

is that Jesus died on the
cross in our place.

And so when they would get together,

I've always tried to
figure this out.

I wonder if when they got together
in the temple and were doing the

Lord's Supper kind of thing,

if they passed out little
styrofoam wafers,

I don't think they did right.

I think in the fellowship together,

somebody, one leader,

maybe Peter,

stood up and broke a piece of bread.

And he said,

folks, let's stop and let's remember
that Christ died for us,

that Jesus gave his life and this
bread represents his body.

Take a piece of it,

Eat and remember.

And then they passed cups around.

And if it was a hundred and something
of them that were gathering or

thousands by the end of chapter two
and three that were gathering and

they were breaking bread together,

does that breaking bread together
mean that they were just simply

celebrating the Lord's Supper?

Because some have interpreted
it that way that,

that breaking bread means they got together
and what they did was just

practice the Lord's Supper.

Well, I put.

The second point of the messages is
that they were devoted to food.

They were devoted to
meeting together,

and they were devoted to food.

Because if you take the construction
of the sentence when it says every

day, they devoted themselves to meeting
together in the temple and broke

bread from house to house.

Now it doesn't say they broke
bread in the temple,

does it?

It says they broke bread
from house to house.

So who's serving today?

Right? No,

I'm just kidding.

You see,

here's the point.

They were community,

okay? That's the point of this.

They were community.

They were sharing their
lives together,

right? They were coming
together as the body.

They were going out from
the temple as the body.

They were sitting down around the
table and eating together.

They were remembering Christ's
death together.

They were devoted to this
idea of community.

Now I said devoted to food
because guess what?

They were taking their
meals together.

Because that's what it says.

It says right here,

they ate their food with joyful
and sincere hearts.

Now some translations say they ate their
meals with joyful and sincere

hearts. So we know this is not
just the Lord's Supper.

They were sit down.

Dinnertime.

Here we go,

ya'll. You see?

So I think that's a great argument
for dinner on the grounds.

I don't know.

But they were joyful and sincere.

So joyful.

We, I Talked about that Friday
with the senior adults.

We want to be.

We want to be the example of joy to
a world that misses out on it so

much, you know,

we want people to look at us and go,

man, you folks are just happy,

you know?

Who was it?

Janice was the one asked me Friday.

She said,

bobby, she said,

why do we woo?

Well, I preached a message up in Maryland
years and years and years ago

about God loving a cheerful giver.

And so we got ready
to take the offer.

And I said,

all right,

let me hear you be cheerful about
giving and everybody in the car.

Whoo. So after that,

every time I'd say,

okay, guys,

it's offering time.

They'd all woo.

Well, I just liked it so much,

I decided we're going to
do it all the time.

That's going to be amen
in gathering speak,

okay? But the idea of being joyful,

we want folks as they walk in here
to recognize that we have joy not

because of what's going
on in the world,

not because of anything we might
have accumulated in our lives,

but we have joy because
we have Jesus,

okay? That's why we have joy
and we're sincere about it.

This is not just,

you know,

a membership card we stick
in our pocket.

We are devoted to what God has done
on our behalf in Jesus Christ.

And then it goes on to say in verse,

still in the same verse,

praising God and enjoying the
favor of all the people.

I think that's kind of crucial
in the whole thing.

They were praising God.

What does praising God accomplish?

Anybody know?

Anybody want to hazard?

Raise your hand and tell
me what you think.

And always,

you know,

and I used to do this when
I was a youth pastor.

If you're wrong,

I'll tell you what does praising God
accomplish The chief purpose of man

created for God's glory.

Is that what you're getting at?

Okay, I thought maybe you found
that in Appendix B.

I didn't know.

Okay. No,

just kidding.

Oh, is that right?

All right,

so what does praising
God accomplish?

Praising God is the chief
purpose of man.

We were created for God's glory.

All right,

what else?

Any other ideas?

Recognition of what?

Recognizing and acknowledging God.

Right. Okay.

Say again,

Beth? I'm sorry.

That's right.

If you feel low,

your best prescription
is to praise God.

See? So when you go to the Psalms.

Because Psalms is a book of praise,

right?

It's the songs of God's people
in the Old Testament.

It's a book of praise songs.

And so what did they do when
they were praising God?

They praised Because God
is God and we aren't.

They praise God for His glory.

They praised his glory.

They praised him because
he is great.

They praise him because he's wise.

They praise him because
he's powerful.

They praise him because he's
merciful and faithful.

They praise him because he saves.

They praise him because
he provides for us.

So everything about our lives needs
to result in an attitude,

a posture,

the activity,

activity of praising Him.

So is your life an act of praise?

Because God's people in Acts,

chapter two,

verses 46 and 47,

and actually chapter one and the beginning
of chapter two is the fact

that they came together in prayer,

in unity,

in fellowship,

and praising God.

That's what they did.

So when I looked at all this,

I was like,

wow. And I didn't add
walking together,

y'all. Loving God and living Jesus
were the two priorities of the

gathering for 10 years.

And then five years ago,

they decided we need to do walking Together
because we were starting to

encourage and incorporate more small
group ministries and getting

together and getting together in different
settings and that sort of

thing.

I was like,

all right,

fine. So why do we praise God?

Because if we don't,

rocks will.

Okay, just so you know,

if we don't.

Man, wouldn't you hate to be so negligent
in praising God that you're

walking down the street,

all of a sudden the rock goes,

whoo?

I mean,

that would be bad news right there.

First of all,

I'd have a heart attack.

But anyhow,

folks, coming together as
the body of Christ,

walking together as the
body of Christ,

meeting together as the
body of Christ,

praying together as the
body of Christ,

eating together as the
body of Christ.

Coming together in community and fellowship
is a priority of God's,

and He wants us to do it.

As a matter of fact,

I think he enjoys our doing it.

Now, there's some words I'm
going to throw out at you.

You ready?

Meeting together and walking together
as the body of Christ requires

surrender. Some of the harshest words
that I've spoken from this pulpit

are that it ain't about you.

You know that.

I know I'm not supposed
to use ain't teachers,

but I did.

It's not about us.

It's about surrender.

It's about submission to God and
His leadership in our lives.

It's about obedience.

And all three of those words actually
are in direct opposition to the

word selfishness,

which is where a lot of
people get caught.

Well, what about me?

And then y'all know me
well enough to know,

and I Go.

What about you?

Thank you very much,

folks.

Loving God.

This is an act of worship living.

Jesus is loving those around us.

Coming together as the body
of Christ in unity.

I mean,

I go back and we'll talk about the folks
in the New Testament who say,

guess what a house divided against
itself can't stand.

We see that all around us right now.

Gathering, folks.

I shared with the senior
adults Friday,

you know what?

Gathering is a happy place.

Come be happy with us,

okay?

Come be happy because God's blessed us
and we're going to praise him for

it. All right?

See this morning,

if you don't know Jesus,

we want you to know Jesus because
that's where it all starts.

You have a relationship with God because
Jesus died on the cross and

provided it.

If you don't know him,

we want you to know him.

I'd love to introduce you to him and
there are others in the room that

would love to introduce you to him.

And then we get to enjoy what it means
to be the family of God together.

Right?

We got brothers and sisters.

You know,

somebody in this room
is your sister,

somebody in this room
is your brother.

And there might not be
blood relatives,

but we are connected because
God is our heavenly father.

Alrighty. If you don't know Jesus,

let us tell you about him.

If you want to be a part of what God
is doing here at the gathering,

just come down and ask.

We will tell you how to do the membership
thing and all that sort of

stuff. People have been asking
me that again lately.

I will tell you that given
the weather situation,

we probably won't baptize you
in the ocean at this point,

just so you know.

All right,

let's pray together.

And the band is going to come up and we
are going to sing and you do what

God is telling you to do.

All right,

God we praise you and thank
you again that God,

you do have some things that
are important to you.

And God we see in scripture
reported historically,

acts is not necessarily instructional
though we can receive instruction

from it by seeing how you blessed
your people in those days.

And every day people were being added
to their numbers who were being

saved. God,

we want people to know Jesus.

We want people to be excited
about knowing Jesus.

We want to be excited about
being the body of Christ.

So God,

we ask your blessing today and ask you
to just speak to folks hearts and

let them respond to you,

not me.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.