The Gathering Surf City

Today is the day that we've set
aside to honor our graduates,

and we've got quite a few this year.

I want to share with
you their names,

because during the 925 hours,

we're going to kind of reserve
these front seats,

rows to seat these graduates
and their families.

And they've been participating with the
Voyager youth ministries now for

a few years.

And so just trying to.

And a lot of times,

to be honest,

we can't keep up with
them all because,

obviously, on Sundays,

we're scattered all over the place,

so.

But here's the list
I have you ready?

Mason Morton.

Elora Loanander.

Matthew Burns.

Aubrey Solomon.

Malia Hermione.

Aubrey mcGeorge.

Damian Leal.

Ashlyn Citarelli.

Heather Whitmarsh.

Abby Mowry.

Zachary Bradshaw.

And Nathan Chisman.

Cheeseman. So,

yeah, we got a bunch of graduates that
will be celebrating with us this

morning.

And I always ask them two questions
when we get up here,

and I'm gonna be honest with y'all.

I cannot preach in this because
I will trip and fall down,

and we'll get caught
up in the sleeves.

And so I've worn it one
time officially,

and I wear it every year for
graduates recognition.

But every now and then,

somebody wants me to wear
it for a wedding,

but not often.

Just so you know.

But anyway.

But our graduates,

I always ask them,

you know,

kind of where they graduated from,

and typically it's topsail
or Dixon high school.

Some of them are homeschooled graduates
and that sort of thing,

which means they're the valedictorian
of their class.

And then I ask them what
they're doing next.

You know,

I love asking the kids,

what are you going to do next?

Cause, you know,

a lot of them will step up there
with an absolute plan.

This is what I'm doing.

This is where I'm going.

This is what I'm going to
do the rest of my life.

You know,

they've got an idea of what happens next
and what they have planned for

their lives,

so to speak.

And so I typically will
kind of inwardly,

when they say,

well, I'm gonna be this
or I'm gonna do that.

I just laugh inside,

because so many times,

our plans do not turn out
the way we expect,

right? We think that we know
what's gonna happen next,

and we can even work to plan
what's gonna happen next.

But every now and then,

we'll start down a path or down
a road or on our journey,

and suddenly,

the circumstances that take place
in our lives will change.

You know,

the direction of our lives.

And so I like graduate recognition.

Sunday we're going to give all our graduates
a Bible and we'll give them

the opportunity to step up here and share
a little bit and that sort of

thing. And Beth will be calling them
up and acknowledging their

participation and that
sort of thing.

And so it's exciting,

but I had told Beth,

and I hadn't done this before,

but I told Beth I was going to prepare
a message just for graduates

recognition Sunday so that we're
not in Hebrews this morning.

We're in two Timothy,

actually, which for some,

you know,

the book of Second Timothy is kind
of Paul's sort of slang,

one song book.

It's sort of that epistle that
he writes to young Timothy,

that sort of the finishing
of ministry for Paul.

But before I get to it,

I have to tell you a couple things.

One, there's a bake sale right
yonder outside that door.

Somebody just stepped out
there and almost,

I forget who was standing there,

but almost bought all the chocolate
chip cookies just a minute ago.

So if you want some bake sale stuff,

somebody brought cute
little cupcakes,

little two pack cupcakes.

I thought that was cute there.

But it's all for camp.

We're raising the funds to send kids to
camp and really trying to discern

which kids and really registrations
at about 70 something right now,

we still have room for another 40 or
50 kids to go if they want to go.

And so just encourage those.

We really want to raise the money
so that kids will not.

We don't want the cost to be an impediment
to kids going to camp because

it's at camp that we get a really focused
opportunity to share Jesus with

them. Alrighty.

So jump in there and buy some snacks
and if you need a moment,

I'll give you.

I'm just kidding.

Second thing is the book sale,

we're really culling down the library
because there are a lot of books in

the library that just don't get used.

And a lot of them that are.

There's a lot of reference works in
there and a lot of other things.

And so they've kind
of put some books.

There's a whole several tables of books
in the fellowship hall this

morning and you can just pick
them up and make a donation.

They don't have prices on them,

but all the donations
go to camp also.

So you got a bake sale,

book sale.

We alliterated that for you so you
could remember both of them.

Alrighty. And then obviously you can
go to the app and the webpage and

all that sort of thing to donate
for camp if you'd like to.

Because we,

like I said last week,

we take the kids on those
big old buses.

They feel really special when they come
here and load up at 06:00 in the

morning on those big old greyhound
type buses and go up the road.

And it's a great week for them.

And we need adults to go along.

Remember I said,

you know,

we got to have one to five kids and
one adult to each five kids.

So we need adults to go.

So some big things happening.

We are in the summer months,

I tell the staff,

when we get to the summertime,

you got to run the play
you've called.

Whatever play you've called
for the summer,

now you got to run it.

You can't change the play anymore.

The calendar is kind of in place
and a lot of things going on.

And every Sunday you're going to be
hearing about stuff to be involved

in, so.

Second Timothy,

chapter four,

verses six to eight.

And I've got this question
to present this morning.

As far as the message is concerned,

what does it mean to finish?

You ever think about.

We don't think about that,

y'all. What does it mean to finish?

I kind of grew up in a house where
some projects never got finished.

Y'all know that?

I lived a life where some projects
never quite got finished.

All righty.

Let me share with you.

Second Timothy,

chapter four,

verses six to eight.

Here we go.

For I am already being poured
out as a drink offering.

And the time for my departure
is close.

I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith there is
reserved for me the crown of

righteousness, which the Lord,

the righteous judge,

will give me on that day.

And not only to me,

but to all those who have
loved his appearing.

All right,

let's pray together.

God, we thank you and we praise
you for loving us.

And God,

thank you for just making us aware that
your desire for us is that we

would love you back and
that we'd act like it.

So, God,

as we take a moment
to consider Paul,

consider who he is and
what he's done,

and God,

to take a look at our own lives.

Some self examination.

God help us to consider what it means
to finish and to really to plan.

To plan our finishing.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. Not a.

It's sort of a morbid topic,

right? We're all standing here
and everybody's obviously.

Paul's talking about his own death.

But I'm not necessarily speaking about
death this morning because our

graduates, you know,

Thursday night for topsail,

they sat out in the heat,

in the.

In the stadium out there,

and.

And Dixon,

I guess they are yet to graduate.

I don't think they've
quite finished yet.

But anyway,

yeah, they finished something.

A lot of graduates believe
that they've,

you know,

this achievement of graduation
is a really big deal.

Those of you that are at
least my age know that.

Guess what?

There's a whole lot
of big deal left,

right. Finishing high school is not
near so monumental as a lot of the

things that come next.

So I think about Paul,

and I think about this testimony
of his from chapter six,

chapter four.

And as it begins in verse six,

verse five.

And I didn't give this to the booth,

so you're going to have
to trust me on this.

He's talking to Timothy.

He says,

but as for you talking to Timothy,

exercise self control in everything,

endure hardship,

do the work of an evangelist,

and fulfill your ministry.

So Paul,

as an older father in ministry,

according to his own testimony
about Timothy,

is giving Timothy some instructions,

some direction for his future,

for what Paul more or less
expects out of Timothy,

but on a larger scale,

because this is the word of God.

This is the inspired scriptural text
that we get to read today.

Can this be an instruction
for us as well?

Can we look at this and go,

all right,

who should I pick on this morning,

right? I should call somebody's name.

I'll call Cole's name.

Here you go.

Exercise self control in everything,

endure hardship,

do the work of an evangelist,

and fulfill your ministry.

Right? See,

I could say that to everybody
in the room,

because this is the expectation of what
it means to surrender our lives,

to serve God,

to follow Jesus,

to be disciples of our savior,

our Lord,

and to fulfill the ministry that God
has set before each one of us and

yet so much in the body of Christ.

I'll ask people,

well, what has God called you to do?

And they're like,

well, I don't know,

really? Then how do you
go about your day?

Because here's the real question that
graduates have got to answer.

When you set an agenda for
yourself during the day,

who are you seeking to please?

Is the effort of your
life to please?

What? Your boss?

That'll get old in a hurry,

right? If your parents
are still around.

Am I still seeking to
please my parents?

Well, see,

we live in a culture for about the last
60 years now that I think that

the main driving emphasis of our
culture is to please ourselves.

We think that it's all
about our happiness.

It's all about my satisfaction,

right? And so when I look at this,

I'm like,

all right,

Paul is encouraging us to what is essentially
the highest priority and

calling that we fill our lives with a
plan and an agenda to please God,

to honor God in all things.

Do as unto the Lord is what Paul
tells us in Colossians.

And so who is this Paul guy?

Who is he?

Know who he is.

All right,

so we know he was Saul of Tarsus.

Tarsus. Being a greek influenced
roman city,

Saul grew up as a child in
a jewish hebrew home,

right? He probably had some sort of affinity
for his early education in a

jewish home.

Probably had a real knack
for memorization,

right? Because as he was learning the
Torah and the things that little

jewish boys have to learn,

he probably was good at it.

You know how you know that?

Because he became a pharisee,

right? He was not only good
at memorizing it,

he was good at dogma.

He was good at legalism.

He was probably a really,

really, really good rule follower,

right?

And he was probably that kid in his
circle of friends that would go,

you can't do that,

right? He was probably that kid because
he grew up and eventually he

lived in Jerusalem and studied under what
was at the time probably one of

the great Sanhedrin,

one of the teachers of
the jewish faith,

Gamaliel, because it
says he trained,

learned, studied under Gamaliel.

And so he was a good student.

You know,

we don't know this about him,

but he might have been valedictorian
of his home school class.

Now, I tell that joke just about every
graduation recognition day,

because years ago,

when I was a youth pastor,

we did a,

we did graduation recognition at
First Baptist Buford in Georgia.

And I,

it was way back before
homeschooling was,

was, you know,

a thing like it is now.

And this one kid,

I remember when he stepped up,

you know,

everybody stepped up and they would say
something about school and what

they were,

had done and what they
were going to do,

and he,

he stepped up and said,

and I have the honor of being valedictorian
of my home school class like

that. And the whole place,

there's, you know,

a bunch of people just
cracked up about it.

And so I've always thought
about that.

I thought,

that's pretty cool to be valedictorian
of your own class,

right?

I mean,

I wasn't that because there were 500
something people in my class.

But, but Paul was probably
an excellent student.

He probably excelled above others,

because by the time we get
to the book of acts,

what we find is,

is that he has been appointed,

in truth,

entrusted with the responsibility of
the rules of Judaism in Jerusalem,

that he has been given this authority
to take christians to task,

to persecute,

to arrest,

even to the point of death,

because we know that in
chapter seven of acts,

the deacon Stephen,

Paul, Saul,

was the one holding the coats overseeing
the stoning of Stephen.

And then he's given the paperwork to go
to Damascus to arrest christians.

You see,

so Paul was.

So if you had asked him when he left
his house that day to go to

Damascus, Paul,

what are you doing going
to Damascus?

I'm going to ensure the legitimacy
and the purity of our faith.

I'm going to find those jewish individuals
who have left the legalism and

law, he wouldn't have
called it that.

He would have said,

who have left the law to follow this way
thing that's come up since Jesus

crucifixion, I'm on my way to Damascus
to ensure our faith and the purity

of it.

Somewhere in that,

I've got to believe
that God's going,

yeah, right,

watch this.

Because it's on the
road to Damascus,

right? That God,

Jesus appears,

you know,

blinds him,

throws him down from his
donkey on some level,

this idea that there's a rumbling
that Paul's companions hear,

but Paul's hearing the voice
of Jesus and he says,

who are you,

lord? I am Jesus,

the one you're persecuting.

See, man,

Jesus changed his day.

Jesus changed his life.

You see that everything that,

I mean,

Paul certainly probably had an idea in
his mind that he was going to be

one of the leaders of the Sanhedrin,

that he was going to be one of those
maybe not high priests because he

wasn't born into the family,

but, but the idea that he was going
to have that kind of authority,

that he was going to have
that kind of leader,

that he was going to achieve
those things,

and Jesus went,

I've got other plans for your life.

You know,

I've had these conversations here
in the gathering and still do.

It's interesting to me that folks
who have grown up with some

introduction to faith and introduction
to Jesus and a knowledge of what

you guys know,

and it might offend you,

but I'm,

yeah, I'm gonna say it again anyway.

But folks who have this awareness of
what I refer to as churchianity,

but when it comes right down to it,

they don't know Jesus.

You know,

they've done the things,

they followed the rules.

They've stepped through the hoops
of whatever's required.

And they may genuinely know Jesus,

but the relationship is
lacking in some way,

you see?

And so I look at these
things and I go,

all right,

well, what is it that Paul has done?

You see,

we know who he is leading up to,

and then we see in his life that that
day on the road to Damascus,

God confronted him on the road and
changed not just his agenda,

his goals,

his direction of his life.

They changed his identity.

We even know him differently
after that.

He was Saul of Tarsus,

and now he's Paul.

You see,

now, a lot of scholars will tell you
he was probably called by both

names, depending on who
he was talking to.

Saul being a more roman name and Paul
being a christian hebrew name.

Anyway, whatever it is,

he was probably known by both names.

So a lot of times when I
preach about Saul Paul,

I call him Saul Paul.

It's just who he is.

But his life was different
after that day.

Can I just tell y'all something?

I have struggled in ministry with the
fact that some people will talk

about Jesus in their life,

but there's no difference.

There's not a presence
of regeneration,

that something has changed.

Because if the culture really is teaching
us to please ourselves,

and then all we do is
add Jesus to it,

then we're just pleasing
ourselves with Jesus.

When what God has called us
to is a transformed life,

what God has provided for us
is a transformed life.

That Jesus becomes more than just
an add on to our lives.

He becomes the center
of our identity.

That. That when people want
to know who we are,

it's about Jesus.

Not about where we graduated or our
career goals or our family,

for that matter.

It's about Jesus.

So when I look at these
verses and he says,

I am already being poured
out as a drink offering,

we understand what he's saying there.

He says,

you know,

and that's a picture to an
actually a pagan type,

and there's some reference
to it in Judaism.

But this idea of the drink offering
being poured out as an offering,

that what Paul is actually saying
right there is I'm done.

And more than likely,

he's writing from an incarceration,

a prison.

The time for my departure is close.

And then he makes a statement
of testimony.

I've fought the good fight.

He's looking back over his life,

and he says,

you know what?

And I'm going to word it this way,

because people ask me
about the gathering.

In a lot of ways,

I think Paul's sitting here going,

you know what?

Every opportunity that I've
understood God to give me.

I've taken.

I went here and I went there and I.

I was beaten here,

and I was shipwrecked there.

I got bit by snake on that
island over there.

Everywhere God sent me,

I went.

I've fought the good fight.

I've finished the race.

I've kept the faith.

Then he speaks about something that
we all really should consider,

because he says,

there is reserved for me the
crown of righteousness.

Now, when you hear the word crown,

what do you think?

Gold, right?

So I've heard preachers preach on,

you know,

our crown and all the stars that
are going to be in it.

And I'm thinking,

really?

You know,

I mean,

crowns are mentioned throughout
the Bible.

There are all kind of crowns,

about five different crowns
that are mentioned.

And I list them in the
daily devotional,

but I didn't list them
in the message today,

but crown of life.

You think the crown of
life's made of gold?

I'm not sure.

Got rubies in it?

Probably not,

right? What's the crown of
righteousness look like?

You see,

the crown of righteousness is the perfection
made when we step into the

presence of God.

See, it's when we become whole again.

I'm like,

wow. That's when,

spiritually speaking,

I can be completely and wholly
reunited with my creator.

I will.

I get to see him face to face?

That's what Paul tells us
in one corinthians 1213.

But then we shall see face to face.

Wow. You see?

So. So what is Paul doing right here?

This is the thing that I
encourage people to do,

particularly people that are
at least my age and older.

You know,

who you are.

But I talk about it sometimes.

I'll say,

you know what?

Think about what's next.

Not like I want.

I'll be honest,

you know,

I mean,

Eli just got married,

you know,

five months ago,

six months ago,

something like that.

I did the wedding,

I should remember.

But my point is that,

no, it's not that I'm looking forward
to going to this crown of

righteousness today,

but it doesn't mean that I
can't look forward to it,

that it's there,

and that everything that I do in the
here and now is preparation for

that. You see,

that's what Paul's talking
about here.

So what does it mean to finish?

What does it mean to know
that there is a.

And here's the whole point
of today's message.

Finishing is just beginning,

you see?

Because when we finish this life,

it's just the beginning.

Of eternity.

And guess what?

You never finish that.

Everything else you finish.

I finished high school,

goodness, 40 something
years ago now,

right?

I finished college after seven years.

I finished seminary after
a little time.

I finished ministry
at First Baptist,

Buford. After a time.

I finished ministry in Maryland
at town Baptist church.

I finished ministry at Pisgah Forest
Baptist Church in Brevard area,

up there in the mountains,

which prompts me to always
tell the joke,

you know,

I moved here from the mountains because
everything in between was boring.

So if you're from somewhere inland,

sorry, finishing is beginning.

But my favorite story to tell about finishing
goes back about four and a

half years now.

Just before COVID started,

I had a gentleman who approached
me about discipleship.

He wanted to meet with his pastor on
a regular basis about discipling,

about being who God
wanted him to be.

Now, he's about ten years
older than I am,

or so.

He's 70 ish.

Probably 74 or 75 now.

Y'all know him.

Will Tate.

Will.

Will. He said,

bobby. Well,

he always called me pastor.

Pastor. I need to get this right.

I said,

okay. He said,

I'm in the fourth quarter,

man. That just.

I'll be honest with you.

That just kept resounding
in my head like a bell.

I'm in the fourth quarter.

And so we've joked about
it since then.

We're kind of the thing when he's sitting
in here and I mention it,

he laughs back there because he always
sits in the shade back there

because, you know,

the fourth quarter,

at some point,

the horn sounds and the game's over.

So here's the challenge
for us today.

How are you playing the game?

What effort are you putting toward winning
the crown of righteousness?

Are you surrendered to what
God wants for your life,

or is there a struggle?

Because Paul also describes a struggle
in his own life of pleasing self

versus pleasing Jesus.

You see,

man, I look at this,

you know,

42 years of ministry.

Now, I'll be honest,

I'm not ready to quit.

So y'all are stuck.

But I look at this passage and I go,

but God,

I want to give all.

I want to give my best.

I don't want to be lazy
in the fight,

okay? I want to be devoted to who you've
called me to be doing what you

desire me to do.

See, there are going to be 14 graduates
sitting right here in the next

hour, and they're looking at
college or trade or career,

or someone might be looking
at military.

I don't know.

But the question is,

as those things change,

the thing that doesn't change
is who is lord in your life.

Because you can make the
world your lord.

You can make your hobbies your lord.

You can make your habits your lord.

You can make your career your lord.

I like Paul's words here.

I look at it.

It says,

there is reserved for me the
crown of righteousness,

which the Lord,

the righteous judge,

will give me on that day.

And not only to me,

but to all those who have loved,

longed for,

looked forward to his appearing.

Can't wait to see Jesus.

Can't wait to see Jesus.

If you don't know Jesus,

you need him.

You need him today,

right now,

we're going to give you an opportunity
to respond to him.

We're going to sing one
more song in a minute.

It's your opportunity
to respond to him.

Pray with me.

Father, thank you for today and thank
you for your words and all that

you've accomplished.

God, my prayer would be that this morning
that no one leave here without

knowing Jesus having that intimate personal
relationship and fellowship

with our creator and Lord and God,

I just pray right now that you would
speak to our hearts in such a way,

God, that we would be surrendered,

that we would be devoted,

be committed to living our lives in such
a way that we please you first.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.