The Gathering Surf City

We are finishing up the
book of Hebrews.

Let me go ahead.

I'm not going to give you the whole
summary that I've been giving you

about every day since January,

but here's the point.

Jesus is the object of our worshIp.

If we worship,

it should be directed toward JeSus.

Actually, we were created
for worship.

ThAt's what God created us for,

worship. The problem is that a lot of
times people are worshiping the

wrong Things or the
WrOng somethings.

And we've been talking all year about
JEsus being the object of our

worship, the object of our faith.

And God makes the case throughout the
book of Hebrews for the supremacy

of ChrIst as the focus of our
worship and our faith.

And so when we get to this ending,

part of it is that a lot of this is
really just kind of the product of

our worship.

I mean,

if we are truly going to devote ourselves
and commit ourselves and

surrender ourselves,

and I'll get all the verbs together
here in a minute.

If we are going to make Christ
the focus of our being right,

he is going to be the priority
of our lives,

and not just on Sunday morning.

Christ is going to be the one that
we consider at all times.

And I've shared with you several times
that when you get up in the

morning, consider Jesus.

Go to bed at night,

consider Jesus lunchtime,

consider Jesus all the
times in between.

Consider Jesus is our life a testimony
of what God has done on our

behalf. But what Jesus has
accomplished in us,

are we focusing our hearts and minds
on who he is and who it is that he

desires us to be?

And so that's sort of,

as we wind this down,

we're only dealing with a few verses
here toward the end now.

But this is part of the,

it's not act.

The benediction doesn't come
until we get to verse 20.

But this is kind of like the
writer of Hebrews is,

is sort of tying it all up in a bow.

You see,

our lives are a gift from God.

You know,

I always say,

people say,

I'll ask them,

well, how you doing today?

They say,

I'm on the green side of the grass.

Okay, yeah,

I understand the point.

Yeah, I understand what
you're saying.

But what does I mean is my life,

do I live my life as the
gift it is from God?

Do I devote myself to him?

Do I make my days about him?

Do I surrender myself,

my time,

my energy,

my talent,

my resources to serving him?

So our lives are a gift from God,

but they're also supposed
to be a gift to God.

I've told you about some of the horrible
gifts I've gotten over the

years, right?

And my son is a he.

I don't know where he gets it from,

but he,

um. I told the story
about the willow.

You know,

remember the willow story?

Man, I was so disappointed
in that gift.

So you know what my son gave
me that Christmas?

A wheelo.

It's up in the top of
my closet up there,

and I'm saving it for posterity now.

But, I mean,

you know,

the idea was,

is that he heard the story,

too. So here's the question.

What gift are you giving to God,

right? I mean,

if our lives are a gift from God,

and our lives are supposed
to be a gift back to God,

what gift are you offering?

Because this is part of the picture of
the sacrificial system of the Old

Testament was don't bring the worthless
stuff to the temple.

Don't bring the last of the flock.

Don't bring the ugliest or the dirtiest
or the cheapest thing you got.

What we're supposed to give back to God
is the very best of who we are,

the very best of our lives,

the very best of our produce.

We're supposed to give God our best.

And so,

as we look at this passage,

just understand the writer is just trying
to bring it all together for

us, because it starts in verse
15 with the word therefore,

considering everything we've studied
in the book of Hebrews,

everything that the writer of Hebrews
has brought to the table,

therefore, through him,

let us continually offer up to
God a sacrifice of praise.

That is the fruit of lips
that confess his name.

Don't neglect to do what
is good and to share,

for God is pleased with
such sacrifices.

Obey your leaders and
submit to them,

since they keep watch over your souls
as those who give an account so

that they can do this with
joy and not with grief,

for that would be unprofitable
for you.

Pray for us.

For we are convinced that we
have a clear conscience,

wanting to conduct ourselves
honorably in everything.

And I urge you all the more to pray
that I may be restored to you very

soon, and we'll quit with verse 19.

All right,

let's pray.

God, I praise you and
thank you again,

that as we gather this morning,

you meet with us in this place.

And that's just a very cool thing.

That when we come together,

God, your word teaches us
two or three can gather,

and you meet in their midst.

And so,

God, we just trust that as you
move among us this morning,

God, that we're not so much paying attention
to the things around us,

even my voice.

But, God,

we want to hear you,

God, we want to hear from
you this morning.

We want to understand
more about you.

We want to get a better
glimpse of you.

We want to grow to understand
that what you expect of us,

God, what do you want
to see in our lives?

What is it that we can
present back to you?

Help us.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. Interestingly,

interestingly, when we
think about gifts,

all right,

so everybody knows my birthday
was this week,

right? Typically speaking,

people give me edible things,

just so you know,

which is fine.

I'm okay with edible things.

But when I think about
what we offer,

God, I think we have a
challenge before us,

y'all. I mean,

because we fill up our lives
with everything else,

right? I mean,

if you were to examine your
days of this past week,

you know,

what did you spend the
most time doing?

I asked this last week
and a week or so ago,

this idea of if you evaluated
the time spent,

the energy given,

what you invest in other things,

if you were just to look at the spreadsheet
of how you've invested your

life, what have you given to God?

What's the offering?

Because that's what it
starts out with.

Therefore, through him.

Dick pointed it out this morning.

Him is easily overlooked
right there.

Who's the him there?

Him's Jesus.

Through Jesus,

let us continually offer up to
God a sacrifice of praise.

What does this sacrifice mean?

What do you mean,

a sacrifice?

It doesn't hurt me a bit to come in
here with all you folks and sing.

See, that's what we've always
considered our praise is,

okay, singing to God.

Or, you know,

some traditions of church will say,

well, I raise my hands,

that means I'm praising God.

Either that or you're surrendering
to the police.

One or the other.

I don't know.

Right? I mean,

that's kind of thing.

What is it?

What does a sacrifice of praise
look like in your life?

What is it that you sacrifice
to praise?

You see,

this is going to be challenging for
us because given the first twelve

chapters of this book,

what we understand is that
when the world can,

can keep us swirling with
the distractions,

sometimes we're going to have to,

we're going to have to sacrifice the
things that are in this world so

that we can offer our lives to God.

Okay? You might have to
give up something.

I might have to give up something
to make a sacrifice of praise.

You might have to give up some of your
activities or I keep saying you,

I'll say,

we might have to give up
some of our activities.

We might have to give up some of our
resources to offer a sacrifice of

praise. We might have to give up some
of the things that entertain us to

offer up a sacrifice of praise.

He goes on to give a little bit of.

And considering the roman world
at the time this was written,

listen to this.

The fruit of lips that
confess his name.

You see,

in the roman world at that time,

you were required to
worship the Caesar.

But God's calling upon believers
and christians to say,

no, no,

no, I don't worship him.

I worship Jesus,

the focus of our worship,

the object of our faith.

Right? So in that day and time,

to offer up the fruit of lips to the
name of Jesus might mean execution.

Matter of fact,

we're going to get to it in the last
part of the chapter where it says,

oh, yeah,

by the way,

Timothy just got out.

Doesn't tell you got out of what?

It just tell you,

oh, yeah,

he's been released.

I'm thinking,

okay, what it most likely means an imprisonment
because of his faith.

So look at this a minute.

What is it that we are actually
sacrificing in praise to God,

the fruit of lips that
confess his name?

Absolutely, y'all.

We need to be confessing
the name of Christ.

We need for people around us to understand
that Christ is the priority of

who we are.

Jesus in us is what defines
our identity.

You know,

I laugh about it because
as a pastor,

everybody, you know,

I've joked about it.

It's always fun to me
that people go,

oh, sorry,

preacher. Usually it follows
a expletive of some sort.

You know,

they'll say something.

They go,

sorry, preacher.

I go,

you're not offending me.

Don't apologize to me.

You know,

but people need to know
that Christ in us,

that's our hope of glory.

That's who we are.

And we need to be projecting that as
a sacrifice of praise in our lives,

in the world around us.

It's who we are.

Don't neglect to do what is good.

Okay, that's about the most unnecessary
statement I think we could look

at, except that people
aren't doing good.

People are doing bad,

right? So our lives should
be characterized by what,

doing what's good,

what's righteous.

People all the time will ask me,

well, such and such happened.

This happened,

or that happened,

or somebody did this,

somebody did that.

And they'll say,

what do you think I ought to do?

And I go,

well, now,

this will come into play when
it gets down here and says,

obey your leaders,

but I won't get there yet.

Here you go.

I'll go.

Well, God's expectation of each of us
is that our choices are righteous

choices. Do what's right,

do what pleases God.

I don't care what the people
around you are doing.

You have to make sure your actions
are righteous actions,

that your lives speak righteousness
so that we don't bring.

For instance,

it's a phrase in there,

the shame on the cause of Christ.

This idea that my choices
in my life speak Jesus.

And it's a song we sing,

right? I speak Jesus.

Right.

That my choices speak Jesus.

That my attitude speaks Jesus.

That all of those things that
people are not going to say,

well, you know what?

I hear you speak Jesus,

but I don't see you live
speaking Jesus.

There's got to be an agreement
in what we say and do.

We've got to live out our faith.

Don't neglect to do what
is good and to share.

Okay, here's preschool lessons,

right? We teach our kids to share.

Do you know,

and I got convinced of this
when I had my own son,

right?

Do you know that we actually teach
our kids not to share?

You know,

some of the first things I see,

and I did it,

I'm guilty.

I try not to do it anymore because
I was made aware of it.

But do not take the kid's
bottle and go,

mine. But I see adults do that with
children all the time because they

want to play with the child,

right?

Well, the kid all of a sudden goes,

no mind,

man. We teach selfishness,

right? My toys,

my time,

my space,

all that stuff.

Well, what God is saying is,

like, we're supposed to
share not just stuff,

but we're supposed to share
with others of who we are.

Do you give yourself to
other people now,

you know,

I mean,

this is going back to the whole
righteous choices thing.

Do you sacrifice of your time,

energy, talents,

all of those things to serve others?

That's what this is all about.

God wants his people characterized
by giving of themselves,

right? And that this is,

like I said,

15 to 19.

These verses right here are
the writer of Hebrews,

by inspiration of God,

bringing it all to the point of living
our lives as a testimony,

as a sacrifice of praise.

Our lives should be a testimony to Christ
in us because it goes on to

say, for God is pleased
with such sacrifices.

So go ahead.

Look, when I asked a minute ago,

what does sacrifice look like?

All right,

so sacrifice,

properly defined,

is the act of giving up something highly
valued for the sake of something

else, of greater value.

So that's giving up something of value
for something of greater value.

So what is it that we give of
ourselves to praise God?

What of value are we giving
of ourselves?

Right.

That's the challenge for us.

What is our sacrifice?

Fruit of lips that confess his name.

So what is it that you say
about God in your life,

both verbally and non verbally?

I love it when couples get
ready for weddings,

right?

We sit down and have,

I tell people,

if I'm doing your wedding,

we're going to have
six conversations.

Generally scares people.

We're going to have
six conversations.

When we get to the communication
conversation,

it's usually number three.

We get to the communication
conversation and.

And I'll say,

all right,

how many ways can you communicate?

Oh, man.

They get really serious.

They start listing and get all big.

I said,

no, there's only two.

You're going to communicate either
verbally or nonverbally.

And you know what's loudest?

Non verbal.

My mama used to tell us,

she said,

don't you be door cussing.

Cause I'd get mad and slam the door.

Wham. Right?

She's probably watching right now.

She might be laughing at this point,

but that was the thing.

She called it door cussing.

When you slam the door because
you're mad about something,

nonverbal communication
speaks volumes.

And a lot of people have trouble putting
into words what they want to

say. But by action,

you can show what love,

concern, compassion,

care. You can show anger
in your actions.

So when we consider these things,

what is it that we've agreed and understand
to be our sacrifice of

praise? How often do you get to tell
people what God's done in your life?

How often do you take the opportunity
to tell people what God's done in

your life?

See, it's funny to me that
God just arranges things,

conversations, you know,

those moments in passing.

It's like we've got.

We're going to pass some connection with
somebody in just a split second.

That's all the time you got.

You might not ever run into
that person again.

Are they going to get Jesus
from you in that moment?

Now, I'm not talking about whacking
them with a bible or anything,

but I'm talking about giving God praise
for what he's done in you,

what he's done in your life,

and letting people know that,

you know,

I always joke about who's on the other
side of the gas pumps when you

pull up to fill up your tank,

who's on the other side of the
gas pump freaks people out.

If you just kind of go,

good morning,

they'll think you're crazier than,

uh. But it always.

They always will say,

well, good morning,

or thank you.

It's different from running
down the beach.

You can run down the beach,

tell people good morning,

they can ignore you,

but not at the gas pump.

They can't split second
to give God praise,

folks, that's what God's
looking for.

Verse 17 says,

obey your leaders and submit to them.

Says, they keep watch over your souls
as those who will give an account

so that they can do this with
joy and not with grief,

for that would be unprofitable
for you.

All right,

so I'm scared of this verse,

just so y'all know.

I'll just be honest with you.

It's a tough verse.

Cause that whole obey your leaders
and submit to them.

Folks, when I examine this verse,

it reflects back to the
previous verse,

verse seven,

I think it is in this passage
where it says,

watch your leaders.

Let me see if I can go back
here and find it,

because this was last week.

Yeah. Verse seven says,

remember your leaders who have spoken
God's word to you as you carefully

observe the outcome of their lives,

imitate their faith.

So what this is actually saying is,

yeah, watch your leaders faith.

Imitate their faith when they get up
and share with you how they got to

where they are in their faith.

Pay attention to that,

right? I mean,

there are.

There are godly people that
I watch that I listen to,

that I let give instruction
into my life.

Now, they don't even know.

A lot of them don't even know
that they're my leaders,

right? But I listen to them
and I watch their faith.

And I want to.

I want God to use them in my life to give
refinement and to show shape me

so that I can praise God better.

Now, I'll be honest with you.

I'm kind of a.

I won't say I'm a fatalist,

but. But I'll get up here and I will
share with you what I believe God

has laid on my heart and given
for the word of God to say.

And then I'm one of these people.

I go,

now it's up to you.

You decide not to do it,

I'm probably not going to worry
about it beyond that.

So this whole verse right here goes back
to a first century context where

the new movement of Christ in Christianity
was getting the leaders

arrested and tortured and stuff.

And the body of Christ is supposed to
be different from what the world

looks like.

At that time,

one Peter,

chapter five,

verses one and three,

says, I exhort the elders among you
as a fellow elder witness to the

sufferings of Christ,

as well as one who shares in the
glory about to be revealed.

And then Peter's giving instruction to
leadership in the body of Christ.

He says,

shepherd, God's flock among you,

not overseeing out of compulsion,

but willingly as God would have you,

not out of greed for money,

but eagerly,

not lording it over those
entrusted to you,

but being examples to the flock.

Now, here's something that I realized
years ago in great fear and

trembling. If I'm going to stand before
you and share the word of God,

God's going to hold me doubly accountable
for living the word of God,

man, you know what?

That'll make a preacher run away.

But what he's saying is,

he says,

watch your leaders.

They're there studying
and understanding.

And elders at that time were the
ones who had the message.

And the books weren't arranged
like this all the time,

but they did have the writings of the
gospels by this time in the first

century. And these were things they were
passing around and understanding

Jesus teaching.

And the letters were already,

because some of the writers already
referring to Paul's writings and

those kind of things,

so they were already starting to see the
shape of the body of Christ come

into being.

But when I see this obey
your leaders thing,

I know me,

I'm not real good at that part.

And yet I do want to
submit to Christ.

And therefore I submit to those who
teach and those who lead and the

people that are sharing with me as
they share in the instruction of

goddess. You see,

I want to understand that.

I want to submit as unto the Lord.

And then the final encouragement
here is pray for us,

because the writers say,

you know,

as the elders and all
that sort of thing,

and we're going to get to the imprisonment
thing next week,

pray for us,

for we are convinced that we
have a clear conscience.

Now, here's what I'll say.

I have,

I don't believe in 42 years of ministry
that I've ever knowingly

miscommunicated what I've studied
in the word of God.

Now, I admit that years ago I might
have said some things differently

than the way I would say them.

Now, that's just part of maturity
and part of growing up,

you know,

that kind of thing.

But here you go.

If I share it with you from here,

what are you supposed
to do with it now?

What are you all supposed
to do next?

Go study,

man. Go get into the word of God.

Go make sure that what I'm telling
you is what it says.

Truth is,

you know,

and I know some of these older traditional
preachers that they'll tell

you, they'll get you in
worship like this.

Say, hold up your Bible.

See, I don't know.

I want to do that in here because
we put it on the screen,

and then some of you would reach down
and grab one from under a chair.

But here's the point.

You got to have one.

And I really don't care whether it's
paper and ink or whether it's on

your phone or on your tablet
or on your computer.

Study the word of God.

Go get into the word of God.

You see,

it's the word of God
that by his spirit,

transforms us and shapes us.

It's important.

Pray for us,

for we are convinced that we
have a clear conscience,

wanting to conduct ourselves
honorably in everything.

And in verse 19,

he says,

I urge you all the more to pray that
I may be restored to you very soon.

So, obviously,

the writer of Hebrews is one of the
elders of the body of Christ,

and one entrusted by God and inspiration
to put this down in writing.

And I told you we're not.

Greg is,

but we're not convinced that Paul is
the writer of the book of Hebrews.

There are those who are,

and I don't argue with them.

But of all of Paul's letters,

this one doesn't identify him.

So I think that kind of leaves
it a little bit open.

And there are some who,

I've read lots of theories of it,

and some say,

well, it could be Apollos.

Well, Apollos was one
of the corinthians,

and one of,

you know,

the whole leadership of
the body of Christ.

Some have said that the book of Hebrews
is not actually a book.

It was a series of messages that were
preached to the New Testament

church. Well,

I don't know if I go that far.

Here's what I know.

If there's an author of
the book of Hebrews,

it's God who wrote it down.

Yeah, we might know,

and we might not know him next week.

I will make the best case for it being
Paul next week because he does

mention timothy.

Okay.

But my whole point here is that are
we listening to God and making the

sacrifice of our praises
by our lives?

Cause I'll be honest,

and I'd always try to,

if the 15 minutes we share in worship
together is all the praise you're

giving God,

it's not enough.

Our lives need to be a sacrifice.

Of praise,

okay? That's what this is about.

As the writer and as God,

by inspiration,

draws us to a point.

What we're supposed to do is examine
our lives and make sure our lives

speak Jesus,

because he is the focus,

he is the priority of who we are.

Well, it all starts with Jesus.

See, if you've not trusted Jesus,

if you.

I mean,

I asked a guy this week,

I said,

all right,

if you died right now,

would you go to heaven?

And that answer,

I hope so.

Well, guess what?

You can have more of a hope.

More than a hope.

John actually says,

I write these things so
that you can know.

And then my professor
in seminary said,

john's words could be like this.

I write these things so
that you may know,

that you know.

That you know,

right? You can know.

And then let God live it out in
you as you give up sacrifice,

those things that allow
you to praise him.

If you don't know Jesus,

we want you to know Jesus.

We'd love to introduce you to him.

It's cool.

Last week,

I don't know of anybody that we're
supposed to baptize today,

because we baptized them all in
the last couple of weeks.

But last week I didn't know whether
we were baptizing anybody.

And at 925,

I said,

is anybody here supposed
to be baptized?

Day?

Guy right over here went.

So I walked over and I asked him,

I said,

have you trusted Jesus?

He said,

no. I said,

well, let's talk.

So he prayed,

receive Christ,

right there on the front row,

1245.

I took him in the ocean
and dunked him.

Right? See,

God's at work.

Let him be at work in you.

Okay, let's pray.

God, thank you for today,

and thank you for your word
and how clear it is.

God, we know.

God, you have given a everything.

You've given us life.

And God,

it's our turn to give it back to you.

So God,

help us to give you our lives.

And if there's one here this
morning doesn't know Jesus,

never trusted Jesus,

never received the salvation,

God, that you've offered God,

my prayer is this,

that we'd surrender and we'd bowden and
we'd make our lives a sacrifice.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.