Beware of Drifting; Hebrews 2:1-4 - Pastor Ryan - Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM

All right, good morning. It's good to see you guys. I'm really glad you're here. Glad you can make it out this morning. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with us, we'll pray and we'll get started. Father, we come before you this morning. God, we just come before you to give you praise, to give you thanks for getting us up this morning, for getting us here safely. Lord,

for those who couldn't make it, I just pray that you'd be with them this morning, Lord, and bless them wherever they're at and whatever they're doing, Lord God. And Lord, now we just ask your blessing upon this time, Lord, and help us to focus on you and to lavish praise upon you this morning and to glorify you, Father, and give us soft and tender hearts to receive your word as it goes out this morning. God, we love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can go

and have a seat if you like. Father God, we just come before you this morning. Again, we just thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here. Lord, we just thank you for who you are and for how great you are. Lord, God, you are the creator of all the universe, the creator of everything in it. You're the creator of us, Lord God. And Lord God, you are big, God, and you do big and mighty things, Lord. And let that

be a prayer for us this morning, Lord, that you would do big and mighty things today. Would you guys stand with me for the last one? And Father God, we just come before you this morning. Lord, anything that we're able to do is because of you, Lord. The holy reason that we woke up today is because of you, Lord. By yours, Lord. And by that same power, Lord, I just ask that you would

come this morning and move mightily, Lord. Do something great this morning in our life. Lord, I just ask for a soft and tender heart for each of us, myself included, Lord, to be able to receive your word that goes out and do something awesome and mighty. We love you and we praise you in your precious name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could begin the process of finding your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. I'm over on the left-hand side. Everything's back in action this week. And then one thing to take note of over there that's also in the middle section of your bulletin is that the home fellowship in Winfield that Monty and Carol Johns are doing is starting

up this Tuesday. If you have questions, you can see them about that. A couple of other changes in the middle section of your bulletin is that there's a men's and women's breakfast will change this week. Typically, women's breakfast is the second Saturday and men's is the third Saturday, but we are switching this month. The men, we will gather on the 14th for breakfast,

and then the ladies will gather on the 21st. And then with that being said, I also needed to make the announcement that we have been praying about who could kind of take over the women's ministry. There's a lot of different studies that go on, but there's not been one central leader. And part of what will take place at that women's breakfast is that Diane Nichols is going to be taking over the women's ministry, and she's going to be kind of talking about her vision for that at that women's breakfast. So ladies, take note of that. And then the other thing is that there

is intercessory prayer tonight at 6 p.m. down at the other end of the hallway. We will gather and pray for the needs of the body and of the community and the things going on in our nation. So if you are able, please join us. For that. That being said, before we get into everything else for the morning, I've got someone to come share with us. One of the ministries that we support here at Calvary Chapel is the Gideons.

They go out and give out Bibles. And we're always blessed, usually around this time of year, to have Jim Butler from the Gideons come share with us some stories of what God is doing. So Jim, if you would like to come on up, I believe in you. I would tell you about all my health problems, but I think I'll do better. I'm going to have Cadillac surgery next week. I call it Porsche. That sounds

more ritzy than Cadillac or Lincoln Continental, whatever it is. Anyway, I love coming here. It's such a blessing. I hear the best preaching you can imagine here. And also, I got $60 before I ever opened my mouth. And what a generous group you are. I thank you for that. Last year, I began to speak about this program, Friend of the Gideons. You have to get online, Friend of the Gideons,

and then you can get Bibles at the same price that we pay for them. They're identical to a point to the ones that we pass out. But it doesn't have the Gideon insignia on there, but it has the plan of salvation. And I just want to mention once again that this is the easiest way to evangelize that I have ever found. Because when you hand somebody a gift, they will respond some way, usually positively. And then you can have a conversation about salvation. You say,

Are you a Christian? Well, yeah, I'm a Christian. Isn't everybody? Well, can you tell me how to become a Christian? And that's where the rubber meets the road, as J. Vernon McGee says. Because it always opens up a conversation, and you can share the story of redemption from the Lord Jesus Christ with that person in an inoffensive, in other words, not dangerous as it might be in some of the countries.

ono Our mission is the Gospel for the Gideons That's because we believe that the Bible's the most important single thing in this universe that there is. Because Jesus said whoever hears My word and believes on Him who sent me gets eternal life and will never perish. Me gets eternal life and will never perish. and will never be condemned. They're passed from life, from death to life.

And what a joyous thing when we know that, you know, you must be born again, Jesus said. And in Peter, it says you're born again by the word of God. What was it Paul said? It's, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation. And so that's why we do what we do, because we have the power of God in our hands. And I think I sometimes forget how powerful it is, but it can change a person.

It says it can break a hard heart. It's alive and can discern between the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So many wonderful things the Bible can do. And we give them out in our little camp here, the Cali County camp. And we have one of the, I think we have the most people that partner with us right here in Cali County than anywhere else, any of the 250,000 camps around the world.

And it's just a thrilling thing to know that we have such a base of godly, people here in our county. And maybe that's why it's such a joy to talk with them. And you'd find someone without Christ. And usually they're open, very few. A man told me though, the other day, I said, what will happen when you die? And he said, well, I'm just not planning on it, not planning on dying.

So that kind of left me in the lurch. But anyway, we go to the doctor's offices, motel, hotels, chiropractic places, even where the physical therapists work, and mental institutions, the prisons, and we give them to the policemen and the firemen and anyone else that we can. The other day I went to the prison to see about putting out Bibles there and he said, no, we don't need any Bibles. We've got some more Bibles you can believe.

He said, can you use some? I said, yeah. And he gave me four stacks of boxes full of Spanish Bibles. And guess what ethnic group we have in Cali County.

We have so many Guatemalan and Mexican churches and what a joy it is to be able to hand them that. Even had a John MacArthur study Bible that I gave to Hector Flores down there in his Spleeth edition. But what a wonderful thing, you go to give and you get, I think that's in the Bible somewhere. I won't give you a lot of statistics but it is interesting that 105,000 people die.

Or it's more than that 154,000 people die every day. And many of them without Christ. And we have an obligation to reach out to people, That's our responsibility. It's the last thing Jesus said. You know, go into all the world, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them everything that I taught you. And so we have that great privilege. We go to two major cities every month, and we were in Thailand,

and one of those had a place called, I've got to get this right, but Hatia, there happened to be a lady from Taiwan here in the first service. She told me how to pronounce that. But it was very exciting to know that the Gideons that traveled there from all over and joined with the local camps, they passed out 180,000 different scriptures to the people there. And they were welcomed into the schools, which, of course, were not here, but in Thailand they were.

And they were Muslim schools and Buddhist schools. And they just welcomed them in. Oh, thank you. And could you present your story of the Gideons to these young people? And one man wrote, and he said it was the greatest thrill, he said, to be able to hold up this. The word of God in front of an entire student body and invite them to read it with all their hearts,

it's a dear memory that I will cherish. And I don't know how your experience has been in leading people to Christ. I have no way of knowing, but from a personal view, I think there's no greater joy than to see someone born again and know that they are going to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus. And so that's what we do. One lady from Tennessee wrote and said she was put into a psychiatric hospital.

And the lady, another patient, was there reading her Gideon Bible. And she said, I wonder if I could get one of those. And, of course, she was able to. And she said, I read the Psalms every day while I was there. And she said, I read the Psalms every day while I was there. It made me understand that even David cried out to God in desperation. But simultaneously, he praised.

It kept me together during my struggles. I'll never be able to thank you enough for the beautiful gift of that New Testament. And she goes on and says, I thought maybe other people would like to know my testimony. And that's the thrilling part, is to hear back from people. There's one more that a letter was written. It was written to us, Pastor Reuel Tika from the Philippines.

He said, my grandfather received a Gideon New Testament while living in the Philippines. He read it every day and was saved. He became a pastor and prayed that his sons would become pastors too. God answered his prayer. All five of his sons became pastors. And so did their 15 sons, including me, he says. God has used our family now to start 500 churches. Well, one testament, one man, and the multiplication theory works pretty well.

You know, that penny a day and double it, or a million dollars in one day, and so on. Well, anyway, there's... There's a song that says, when will people realize that people need the Lord, that we are called to give our lives? And so that's, I guess, a challenge, you might say. And we have a song that someone wrote about the Gideon Bible. And I want to play that for you.

And I just ask that you listen attentively to the words, because that's what we... That's what we do. So I'm going to get out of here and enjoy this great music.

I sat down and my mic got all screwed up here. All right. So for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 1. Looking at the New American Standard so that hopefully we can all read the same thing at the same time. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you're turning to Psalm 1, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow. Along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 1. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. And whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so. But they are like... Like chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

And so, Father, this morning we want to meditate on your words so that it can do its work in our hearts and in our lives. And so, Father, I just pray that you would move as you see fit by the power of your Holy Spirit through your written word this morning. We just praise you and thank you for who you are in Jesus' name. Amen. Be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 2.

Hebrews, chapter 2. Well, the first two chapters of Hebrews really deal with the same theme, which is that Jesus is so much better than the angels. But in the middle of this theme of Jesus being better than the angels or far superior to the angels, the writer to the Hebrews gives us the first of five warnings that he'll give us within the book of Hebrews. And the warning that he gives to us, this morning, is beware of drifting.

Beware of drifting. It says this in verse 1 of Hebrews, chapter 2. For this reason, we must pay closer, much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

After it was at the first spoken through the Lord and confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his will. Beware of drifting. There's three things I would like for us to look at this morning. We are going to look at the warning. We're going to look at the why.

And then we're going to look at the questions. Let's first look at the warning that's given to us in verse 1. He starts off by saying, For this, And as always, when you read something like that, you should ask yourself a question. What reason is he talking about? Well, the reason that he's talking about leads us back into chapter 1. The reason why he's about to give us this warning is because of the fact that Jesus is God's final revelation of him.

We were told in the beginning of chapter 1 that in past times and in various ways, God spoke to us through his prophets. But in the last of these days, he has spoken to us in his son. And so, Jesus is that final revelation of who Jesus is. But not only that, Jesus has so much greater authority than the angels. And so, for this reason, since Jesus is the ultimate revelation of who God is,

and since Jesus is farly superior to the angels and everything else along with the prophets, we should pay close attention to what he says. It says, Pay much closer attention. Now, if you have kids, you know that what you have to do is you have to constantly remind them to pay attention to the words that you're saying, right? Now, I speak to a lot of different people.

I speak to people that are young. I speak to people that are old. I speak to people that are in between. And I'm here to tell you right now, needing to get people to pay attention is not just a kid thing, right? Like, as I'm talking to you all, listen, I'm going to expose you just like I would if it was me out there right now. I see what happens, right? Like, some people are like, oh, you're not going to pay attention to me.

I'm like, no, I'm not going to pay attention to you. I'm not going to pay attention to you. You shouldn't make eye contact with people that you talk to. You should look over their heads. I disagree with that 100%. I like to make eye contact with people. And so I look at people, and I see what happens. And I see that at some point in time in the service, you begin thinking about what's going to be for lunch or what's going to take place this afternoon or perhaps the thing that you're thinking about tomorrow for the rest of your week.

And you start to drift. And so I have to use things that pastors use to say, now, pay attention to this. And then you go, oh, oh, that's right. I'm here doing something. I'm not just thinking about what I'm making. I'm just thinking about what I'm making for lunch later. Well, that's what he kind of has to do here. He says you have to pay much closer attention.

He just gave us a whole lot of stuff about who Jesus is as far superior to the angels. But then he says, but we must pay closer attention. That phrase means to give more earnest heed or to give careful attention. The idea is literally to hold tightly to like an anchor. That's what we are supposed to do. And what are we supposed to do that with? The things which we have heard.

The. The Amplified Bible translates it like this. You must listen more carefully to the truth. What is the truth that we have heard? The truth that we have heard is the message of the gospel. And we have to listen carefully to the message of the gospel. We have to listen carefully to the truth. We have to pay really close attention to the truth that is in front of us in the word of God.

Because Jesus is the revelation of God. And he is told to us or told about to us through his word. So we are to pay close attention, lest we drift from it, lest we drift from it. The end of verse one gives the warning so that we do not drift away from the truth. The word drift means to glide by or to slip by. Literally in the Greek, it's used of snow falling off of a soldier's uniform.

The idea is to slip off of the soldier's uniform. Perhaps you noticed that this week. Actually, maybe you haven't. Because it's been so stupidly cold. That as snow begins to melt, it starts to slide off the hood of your car. That's the idea of the word that's being presented to us here. Here is to glide by or to slip by. Only it's not snow slipping off the front of your car.

It's you slipping away from the truth. Let me give you a little bit of an illustration of what I mean by this. Me and a couple of buddies have a little fishing boat. We like to go fishing together all the time. And this boat is literally nothing to write home about. It's a flat bottom boat that barely fits three people. And it's got a little trolling motor on it.

But we call it ours. And we take it out fishing. At least we used to when we still went fishing. And it's not big enough to take on any kind of a lake. But you can take it out on some big farm ponds. So we'd find these farm ponds to go to. And we'd go out on them. And so we take off one day. And, of course, you've got to make sure you've got the anchor, right?

The anchor is a really important part of a boat. I think anybody that's ever owned a boat would say it's a really important part of the boat. Right? So we get everything in there. We get the boat in the water. And we kind of. We survey the pond that we're on. It's a really big pond. We survey it. Ah, some trees right there. Deep water there. This is exactly where we want to be.

So if you cast up underneath the trees, that's oftentimes where the fish are. And you bring them out into the deeper water. That's usually where they bite your hook. So we get to where we think is the perfect spot. And we're like, let's throw in the anchor. And so we throw in the anchor. You know what the most important thing you can do with an anchor is? Tie it to your boat.

That is actually the most important thing you can do with the anchor. Because I'm here to tell you right now, that anchor is currently doing its job. Right? It is not moving. It is currently at the bottom of a pond north of Winfield. That's exactly where that anchor is. Because that anchor did exactly what it was supposed to be. It sunk down to the bottom. It held on to the bottom.

The only problem was we didn't tie it to the boat. And so it couldn't do its job for us. That's what he means by drifting. Is when you are not tied to the anchor, something interesting begins to happen. So as we're fishing, we're like, perfect spot. Goes into the water. We're like, we're not going home to get a new anchor. We'll be okay. We'll be okay. Let's just fish.

Right? That is three dudes. Right? Like no one thought about the consequences. We were like, let's just fish. We're already here. So we're fishing. Reeling in. Not catching anything. But we are noticing something's happening with our boat. Our boat is drifting. The trees are getting further away. And the bank is getting closer. It's interesting because that is a non-moving body of water.

And yet, because of the wind and the breeze and everything, it's slowly causing us to drift. The fascinating thing about the drifting of the boat. The boat that we were in is you didn't notice it until you looked back where you wanted to be. And you were like, wait a second. How did we end up all the way over here? We drifted. See, here's the thing about drifting.

It happens slowly. You don't always notice it at the outset. The only way that you notice it is if you look back to where you want to be. And you go, how did we get so far from where we want to be? That's why when he gives this warning, he warns them of drifting. Because very few people in the body of Christ decide that they're going to go all in on sin at one time.

They rarely decide to 100% leave the faith all at one time. How does it happen? It's a slow drift. And because the anchor isn't tied to your boat, it stops doing its job. And you begin to drift away from the truth. That's why he says, You must pay careful heed. You must pay close attention. You must hold on to, like an anchor, the truth that you have heard, or else you'll drift away.

Jesus and his truth is the anchor that we have to hold on to. And if that anchor is not tethered to our boat, it does us no good. Listen, the truth of Jesus is always going to do its job. It's always going to be an anchor. The question is, is it anchoring? Is it anchoring your boat? Or is it just sitting at the bottom of the pond? You see, the only way it can anchor your boat is if you pay more attention,

pay much closer attention to the things that you have heard, lest you drift away. Well, that's the warning that he gives to us, is that we have to be careful. Because that drifting is a slow process. But that drifting from truth is a process. And it's something that we're prone to. And at the end, when we answer the questions, we'll look at, what it looks like to drift away.

But for now, let's look at the why. Why does he warn us of these things? Verse two. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? He says, if the word that was spoken through angels. Now, what is he talking about when he says the word spoken through angels?

Well, what he's referring to is the law there. Several different places in scripture, not the least of which is the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Acts. And right here, we learn that the intermediate agency that actually spoke the law brought the law to the people was that of Angels. He says, if the word that was spoken through angels, if the law given through angels was first of all, unalterable, that word unalterable means steadfast or authentic.

In other words, if it was real, authentic and if it meant what it said and if that law that was spoken through angels which is unaltered carried a penalty for disobedience because notice what he says here if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty those two words are interesting we should pay attention to them the word transgression means to step over the line it's literally the idea is a boundary line that you're not supposed to cross but a transgression is crossing a boundary line that you know exists we have a word for it in christianity we call it willful sin if you transgress if you step over the line of the law

there's a penalty but also if you disobey the law the idea of disobedience is simply neglecting to hear in other words if it's a sin of commission or it's a sin of omission you still have to face the penalty that comes with the law because the law had penalties that went along with it you and so if the law which was unalterable and it came through angels who jesus is better than it is unalterable and carries with it a penalty for disobedience then how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation how shall we escape if we neglect so great as a salvation in other words if the law brought through angels carried a penalty then how much more does the law that came through jesus does the gospel that came through jesus

does the salvation that came through jesus if it is neglected carry a great penalty the word neglect here is really interesting the word neglect means to have the opportunity but to ignore or to disregard to have the opportunity but to ignore or to disregard now in this direct context i want to point out the fact that he's talking to christians right now this is not necessarily a direct warning to unbelievers although i am going to bring it to that in just a moment but it's a direct warning to christians that if we neglect the gospel if we drift from the gospel then how can we escape any kind of penalty if we start thinking that there's some other way to be

saved besides the gospel then how are we to escape if we drift from it then there's a penalty that goes with it but i want to point out something to those of you that are here this morning that maybe have never come to jesus as your lord and savior i need you to know something if you neglect the gospel then how can we escape any kind of penalty if we start thinking that there's some neglect the salvation that is consistently presented to you whether it be through the people that are presenting you the gospel or even a message like this if you continue to neglect that and by neglect i mean to ignore or to disregard you need to know you're hardening yourself for future judgment you see as the as the truth of the gospel is presented to someone

and your heart begins to bear witness with like man that's probably true i probably need to probably need to commit my life to that i know that i'm a sinner and i know that i need a savior but you keep pushing that back then you begin to form a callous on your heart you begin to harden yourself to the truth and as you harden yourself to the truth the next time that that gospel presentation is given to you you don't feel the conviction as heavily you don't feel that conviction like you did the first time that you heard it and pretty soon it's like maybe i was just making that whole thing up maybe it was just indigestion that day and that's why i felt that that intensity inside

of me when he presented the gospel and so if you're a believer here this morning i want to tell you don't neglect the truth of the gospel don't drift from the from the truth of the gospel because there's a danger in that but if you're here this morning and you're an unbeliever i want you to know you've got to stop saying no to jesus because the more that you say no to jesus the greater of an opportunity you have to not be able to say yes and i care about your soul too much to see that happen he says how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation and then he describes this great salvation in three ways he says after it was spoken through the lord it was confirmed to us by those who heard and god testified with them both by signs

and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the holy spirit according to his own will this gospel that we are speaking of was number one given to us through our lord who is none other than jesus christ himself now i could probably take you to lots of places in scripture in the four gospel accounts where jesus preaches the gospel but i'm going to tell you about two of them specifically the first one is in john chapter 3 verse 16 when jesus in speaking to nicodemus when nicodemus is asking or yeah when nicodemus is asking him questions and jesus says unless a man is born again he can't see the kingdom he says how how's a man supposed to be born again he said that have you been a teacher so long and you don't know these things unless

the man is born of water and spirit he can't see the kingdom and he goes what do you mean by that and he said listen as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so jesus even so the son of man must be lifted up and then comes john 3 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life jesus declared the gospel the message that he gave is that i am the sacrifice for sin he who believes in me the sacrifice for sin will receive salvation and inherit eternal life and if that wasn't enough for you go all the way into john chapter 6 and in john chapter 6 when everybody wants jesus to give more bread right

john chapter 5 is jesus feeding the 5 000 and john chapter 6 is the people wanting him to feed them again and he says my father has given you a different kind of bread he's going to refer to himself as the bread of life and they say what must we do to work the works of god and jesus says this is what you must do to work the works of god you must believe on him whom he has sent jesus once again declaring that the method to salvation is by faith alone in jesus christ which is why if you add to the gospel works you have denied the truth of jesus if you take faith away from the gospel you have denied jesus which is exactly what they were in danger of doing at this point in time and so he says first of all this gospel

message that you can't neglect it was given you will receive the bread of life and you will have given to us by our Lord. But then on top of that, it was, let me get my wording right here. It was confirmed by those who heard. In other words, his apostles went and shared the exact same message. That's why if you read the rest of the New Testament, you will find that it

completely lines up with what Jesus said. That's how they decided which books went into the New Testament, is it had to line up with what Jesus said. Because if it doesn't, it's false. And so all of those messages that those apostles brought confirmed. If you read the book of Acts, if you read the epistles, you will find that they continue to confirm the message of Jesus

that salvation is by faith alone. That salvation is by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, not by good works which you have done. But not only that, it was testified to, verse 4, by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his will. Any time there has been a greater revelation of God or God is establishing his revelation in the world, there's always crazy signs and wonders and miracles that went along with it.

I want you to think about the first time we really see this in the Bible, and it's with Moses, right? Like I think either yesterday or today, we start the book of Exodus in our reading. That's the first time God really testifies of his revelation through miracles, through the miracles of the plagues, through the miracles of the flood, through the miracles of the flood, through the miracles of the nation of Israel being protected through the plagues, through the parting of the Red Sea. God is establishing the validity of his servant Moses and the revelation of himself through his servant Moses with signs and wonders. The next time we really see all this take place is the

prophetic ministry in the Old Testament. Think about stories of Elijah and Elisha and all the powerful miracles that they performed. Why were they able to perform those miracles? Well, it was the Holy Spirit at work, but it was to confirm, it was to test the miracles of the Holy Spirit at work. It was to bear witness of the fact that these are bringing the revelation of God. Well, you move into

the New Testament, and Jesus' ministry was verified, it was testified to, of the fact that he did the miracles that the Messiah was supposed to do. As a matter of fact, in John, it says, if you don't believe me for my words, believe me for the miracles that I have done, because these are what the Messiah was supposed to do. And then as God was establishing his witness amongst the apostles, we read in the book of Exodus, oftentimes they were able to do crazy miracles. Now, the question always is, okay, wait, I had one more thing I needed to share. If you look at what's going on in other countries right now,

just like our good friend Jim was sharing with us, you find that there are crazy miracles going on in other countries right now, where they are needing the witness of the word of God to be established, and so God provides them with great miracles so that people go, ah, the validity of what's going on is seen through what it's producing. Now, I get asked this question a lot, so I'm going to give you my answer to it. Why don't we see as many miracles in the United States of America today? I think there's two reasons why. Number one, I believe that one of the reasons we don't see miracles taking place in the

United States of America today is because of the abuse that has taken place over the years. I was just on a Zoom meeting the other day with a couple of guys. We're writing all the material for a camp that's coming up, and they were sharing about a documentary that came out about Michael Todd. And listen, I have no problem calling this out. I'm not going to call this out. I'm going to

name out, because it needs to be done. Michael Todd and the fraud that most of his ministry is, because Michael Todd's a guy down in Tulsa, and a lot of people probably listen to him, and you shouldn't, because his ministry is a fraud. And this entire documentary points that out. And because of abuses like that, same thing with the Bethel thing that just came out.

I'm sure that there's some wonderful people that go to Bethel, but there is some tragic stuff that's going on with all of that. And because of the abuses, where people have tried to manufacture miracles, I believe that God just has to say, I just can't do as much there because of the unbelief. Not that he can't, but he won't, because of the unbelief that is created by so much of what's going on with the abuse of the miracles. But the second reason why I believe that God doesn't do as much of the miracles in the Western culture of the United States is because we have so much of a witness that is presented to us that we have no excuse for the need for more validity.

Of what God's word has to say. Now, I want to couch that with a statement. I absolutely believe that the gifts are for today. I believe that God still does miracles. I have, I've been in services where it was appropriate, where tongues were used, and, and someone spoke in tongues and someone interpreted it. And it was a beautiful moment where God was glorified. I have no problem with that, but everything needs to be done decently

and in order. Right now is not the right time to do that. I believe that God still does miracles. I have absolutely the reason to ask you, why would the Holy Spirit interrupt what the Holy Spirit is doing? And I would probably ask you to leave because that's not an appropriate way to handle the gifts. I believe that gifts of healing are for today. I've seen them. I have seen people

healed. I'm just going to be really honest with you. I saw somebody healed two weeks ago, two weeks ago on Saturday, because there's no other way to explain what I saw. And it was nothing, there was no hoopla. There was nothing else, but I got a call about a guy having a heart attack and I showed up at his house and that guy was dead. And I'm not making that up.

According to the report, clinically dead for 20 minutes. And all we knew to do was pray. And we prayed and we prayed and we prayed and God used paramedics. But I'm here to tell you right now, those paramedics didn't do anything that God did not first do for them. Because I, I saw someone today that's alive that I did not think two weeks ago was going to live.

And I'm just being honest about that. I believe that this stuff is for today. And that's not the only time I've seen miracles of healing take place. But every time I've ever seen it, there was not hoopla. The room wasn't shaking. No one was dancing in circles. There was nothing weird going on. It was simply the laying on of hands and asking God to move. And God moved. There were no violent

gyrations. There was nothing strange. Nobody else probably even knew it was happening, but God moved as he saw fit. And God tested. And God testifies of the truth of the gospel through signs and wonders and miracles and through the working of his Holy Spirit. But listen, there's something important you have to pay attention to at the end of verse four. Let me read it to you again. God also testifying with

them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will. Because what God does is God's business. Because for as many stories as I can tell you of seeing people healed, and there's not an incredible amount, I can tell you 10 times as many stories of people not being healed. But I trust God in both of them. I trust that God was sovereign and his will was done in both of them.

And so he says, why do we need to beware of drifting? Because if the message that came through angels, which was valid, which was unalterable, carried with it a penalty for disobedience, then how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? If we dumb down, doctor down, if we water down the word, if we water down the gospel, if we try to change the gospel, if we drift from the gospel, how shall we neglect? Because this gospel was presented to us by our Lord. It was confirmed to us by the teaching of the apostles. And it was testified to through

the power of Jesus Christ through signs, miracles, wonders, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So beware of drifting. Well, as I was studying this week, again, I like to share with you my process just a little bit because there's nothing magical about it. I think you all can use the same process. I always just write out questions. So my journal, if you were to look, you would find that

at the bottom of me outlining this whole thing, I just wrote three questions. And these are my three questions that I ask. What do we drift into? What causes drifting? How do we keep from drifting? Those are the three questions that I had. Because if this was a question that I had, if this warning is given to us, then we should pay attention to the warning, we should heed the

warning, and we should learn everything that we can so that we don't become those who drift. So let's take these one at a time. These are the questions that I think we have to answer. Number one, what do we drift into? Under the subheading, I put three things. Number one, we have a tendency to drift into law. We have a tendency to drift into law. It's kind of

fascinating that we can start off so good. It's Galatians, right? You started off so good, so well, who hindered you? You started off so good, but why did you decide that if you were saved by the Spirit, you would be made perfect by the flesh? That's making laws. And I'm always amazed at what we do with the rules that we make. Sometimes the rules that we make have a little bit

of founding in Scripture, and some of them are just dumb, right? But we make up all these rules. Some churches will tell you, hey, listen, unless you read the right translation of the Bible, it's not correct. You're not, you have to read the proper translation of the Bible. Listen, if you're that worked up about the proper translation of the Bible, then you should learn Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. And then you can make sure you read it

directly the way it was written. I don't have that kind of time in my life, and I'm a pastor. You definitely don't have that kind of time in your life. And yet we make up these rules for people. I shared this during first service. I never did share the story that got me in trouble, and I might not have this one either. But I worked at a camp one time. I'm fascinated with

dress codes, right? And the dress code rules. The people come up with. Sidebar, have you ever noticed that most of these rules affect women the most? Why do we treat women this way? God, I love you girls. Like, I don't want to see you put under some kind of law. But I worked at this camp, Prairie View Christian Camp, and we had a group come in over the weekend. I won't tell you what church it was a part of, but there were dress code

rules. Men had to wear pants, and women had to wear dresses. July 23rd in Kansas, and the men had to wear pants. It's like $11 billion. Degrees outside. And like 99,000% humidity. And these guys are running around in jeans. And I'm like, wow. I'm like, I break a sweat the minute I look at them. Because it's just, and the women had to wear the dresses. And listen, the best part for me, no mixed bathing, right? Now listen,

the older that I get, and the more that I have teenage daughters, the more that I kind of agree with that one. But men and women couldn't swim together. I'm kind of like, eh, it might be a rule we can all live with. But they couldn't swim together. But the funniest part to me is that when they went from their dorms down to the pools, the men had to put a towel.

Around their waist to cover their legs. And all I could think was, ain't no girl on this entire property that's like, hairy legs, gone now, right? That's zero times that's happening. And yet these men are wrapping a towel around their waist, like walking down to the pool like this. And I'm just like, oh man. Okay, I'll tell you the story how I got in trouble. Okay, so I can be rebellious

sometimes. Jesus is working it out of me. But especially at the age of 19, I was a knucklehead, right? I love Jesus, but I still like to do what I like to do. Well, me and my buddy that worked maintenance, actually, I think I was 18 at this point in time, still a legal adult, I should have known better. Me and my buddy that worked maintenance out there, a friend of ours had been away on a mission trip for a couple weeks, and she came back,

and she was one of the lifeguards. And so she's lifeguarding for the girls. And I mean, they took this so seriously, they hung tarps on the fence. Like, everything was just blocked off. I don't know why I'm telling you this story, but anyway, I'll tie it in somehow. And so my buddy and I are like, let's go see our friend. We haven't seen him in a while. And so we're like,

we've been seeing her for two and a half weeks. That feels like a good excuse. So we go down to the pool, and we're talking to her, and it's no big deal. And pretty soon, the guy that runs the camp, who we affectionately refer to as Deputy Dog, he, you could, from the hillside, you can see the dorm. And I mean, he storms out of that dorm, and I was like, oh, dude, that guy's angry,

right? Like, he was a short, stubby little guy, like me. And he came out, and he was just so angry. And I remember the wife of the guy that ran the camp came out and goes, here's the thing, have to leave right now, because that guy just called me, and he is not happy, and you are about to hear about it. So you should leave as soon as you possibly can. And we were like, got it. And

we left, and everything was good after that. But law, right? I have no idea why I shared that story with you, but sometimes we give in to law. Actually, that probably goes better with license. What do we drift into? Number one, we drift into law. Number two, we drift into license. We give ourselves the license to sin that God never, ever intended for us to have.

We cloak it under the idea of freedom. But what it really is, is our excuse to live like we want to live. And if we lose the anchor of the fact that my greatest desire is to know Jesus, and sin will keep me from knowing Jesus, then I start to drift into sin, because I stop making that anchor of knowing Jesus the most important thing in my life. And I start deciding I'm going to be a little bit rebellious, like 18-year-old Ryan was, and I'm going to do what I want to do, forget what anybody else says. And we drift into this place of license.

And pretty soon we find that we're caught up in the weeds. We've completely missed out on the center where God intended for us to be. The third thing that we drift into is we drift into apathy. We drift into apathy. I think that this is actually one of the most dangerous things that we face as the Western culture church. Because we're not a church, as much as we like

to act like all of a sudden we're facing some persecution, look, we're weak, okay? This is not persecution. We're not a church. We're not a church. We're not a church. We're not a church. Sometimes people giving us a hard time for the fact that we're a believer is not persecution, right? We've got to get over that just a little bit. Don't get me wrong, we should stand up for

the right that we have as a nation given to us in the constitution to do our thing. But at the end of the day, man, we've got to get over ourselves and realize that it's really not that hard. But we can slip into this apathy because I'm not really facing any difficulty, and well, I can just start floating in life. apathetic attitude is what we drift into if Jesus isn't the center of what we do.

So what do we drift into? We drift into law, we drift into license, we drift into apathy. What causes drifting? What causes that in our life? So I read a lot of different commentaries and a lot of different people on this, and I was unsatisfied with most of what I read because I feel like nobody got to the heart of what was going on until I came to one commentator,

and he started to talk about the heart, and that sparked in my mind a thought because at the heart of what I think leads us into drifting is what we find in the parable of the sower. Jesus tells this parable. He says the sower goes out to sow seeds, and it falls on four different kinds of ground. It falls on the hard ground, falls on the path, and the birds in the air come and they eat it.

Some falls on thorny soil, and it ends up getting choked out by the thorns. Some falls on rocky soil, but because it doesn't have a good root system, when the sun gets hot, it ends up burning up, and then some falls on good soil. Well, I got to thinking, this is what causes drifting. It's what kind of soil your heart is. These are the things that cause drifting.

So, number one, the first thing that causes drifting is when Satan steals the word from us. When Satan steals the word from us. Do you know what the greatest way that Satan steals the word from us is? What we call over-familiarity. Over-familiarity. And this is how it goes. The Bible study is going through 1 Peter. I've already read that book before. I don't need to be a part of that.

You know, I've read it. I read through the Bible one time, and I don't think I really need to be a part of that. Pastor Ryan's teaching Hebrews. I've read that book before. There's nothing more that I need to learn. And that over-familiarity causes us to think, there's nothing more that I can learn because I know it all. And while we would never consider saying that out loud,

unfortunately, sometimes that's the feeling that we have in our heart. I've actually heard parents say this about their kids. I'm just going to be honest about this. I've heard parents say, it's so hard for our kids because they've been talking, not so much that they know everything. And all I could think was, wow, that's probably the most dangerous statement

you could ever make about your kids. Welcome to rebellion in a year. Because if we're ever at that place, we've missed the point. Because the point is not that you learn a bunch of information. The point is that this is an active and living word because it's empowered by the Holy Spirit. My favorite story of this to tell, I've told it a hundred times. I'm going to tell it again, right?

And if you say you've heard it before, so over-familiarity, I'm just kidding. It's about J. Vernon McGee because he's one of my favorite Bible teachers. That's why Jim referenced him. One of my favorite Bible teachers. And it's actually a story that David Hawking told about him. David Hawking said, I had the opportunity to witness the last time that J. Vernon McGee ever spoke in public.

J. Vernon McGee died of cancer. He said his body was just riddled with cancer. He had to be helped up onto the stage. He said he got up behind the pulpit and I think it was Psalm 91 that he was teaching. But my, my psalm may be wrong. It was a psalm, I know that. And he stood behind the pulpit and with that Southern accent that J. Vernon McGee had, he looked up and with a weak voice, he said,

I can't tell you how many times I've taught this psalm, but today Jesus taught me something new.

Satan steals the word from us when we don't think there's anything else we can learn. And that leads us into drifting. Number two, what leads us into drifting is the soil that deals with affliction or persecution. That's actually, what was happening in the book of Hebrews. They were dealing with affliction. They were dealing with persecution. Life got hard and they were being choked out

or excuse me, their roots were not deep enough. And so they were being burned up by the difficulties of life. And sometimes when your marriage gets hard, sometimes when your job gets hard, sometimes when raising your kids gets hard, sometimes when family situations get hard, it chokes out what the word of God has to say because difficulties just became bigger than God's word. And pretty soon you start to drift because you go God's word isn't dealing with anything and you start to drift off somewhere.

But that affliction and that persecution, that difficulties can cause us to drift. But number three, and again, I think that this is one of the things we deal with the most in this culture is the cares of this life. And as Jesus worded it in the book of Matthew, the deceitfulness of wealth, the cares of this life, all of the busyness of this life. This was the thing that John Corson said that made me go, I need to look at those soils because he says, you know what?

One of the greatest ways that we begin to drift is we become really, really busy. Listen, the enemy loves for us to be occupied with things. That's why the culture that we live in today is the busiest culture ever. What's the one thing, I can almost guarantee this, what's the one thing that somebody says to you when you say, how you been lately? Oh, pretty good.

Just really, really busy. Now, whether that's just a verbal thing that we all use or whether it's reality, we still sense it. There's a, there's a busyness about us and we are choked out by the cares of this life. And when we start getting choked out by the cares of this life, pretty soon God's word takes the back burner. Church takes the back burner. Prayer takes the back burner.

The gospel takes the back burner in our lives. And when that happens, we start to drift. And pretty soon we look up and we go, how did I end up over here in the weeds? I wanted to be over there. It's because we got choked out by the cares of this life. Well, that brings us, to my last question. How do we keep from drifting? If this is a problem, if this is something we are being warned about,

how do we keep from that? How do we keep that from happening in our lives? Well, I'm really glad that you asked. I had to put these up here. Came up with three things. Number one, we have to be aware. Each of us in our lives has to be self-aware enough to know it could happen to me. I have to know that drifting is a danger in my life, right? Listen, I've been aware of some dangers this week.

So here's the thing that you have to know about me is I'm not always really graceful on snow and ice. When I was in my early 20s, I did snow removal at the Wrinkle Ranch. And so I had my system. I would shovel one side of the sidewalk down, turn around and shovel the other side on the way back. Only I didn't always pay attention and I was in a hurry. I was not aware of the fact that I am clumsy.

And so I don't know how many times I went, I'm just glad there were no phones. At this point that you could video people with, I get all the way down to the end. I turn around real quick and literally feet up, land completely on my rear end. I am now aware of the fact that I am not graceful on snow and ice. So do you know how I walked in this morning from that parking lot out there

that's full of snow and ice? As I went, this is not a Gandalf staff, by the way, this is my backpack. I'm holding my bag. I almost had coffee right here. I walked in like this. I can't wait to see the security camera footage because I'm like, why? Because I'm aware. I'm aware of the fact that that's a potential for me. And so I took, I take proper precautions.

You have to be aware of the fact that drifting is an issue that we all deal with. Young, old, new believer, old believer. It doesn't matter. We all have to be aware. Number two, you have to be honest. You have to be honest. You have to be honest with yourself and you have to be honest with God.

This is one of the hardest things that we do. I started to just say, you've got to keep your account short with God, but I thought, no, that's not where it starts. It doesn't start just with you confessing your sin to God. It starts with you being honest with yourself. As you are self-aware, you have to be honest with the areas where you see yourself slipping away from the truth,

where you see yourself slipping into legalism, where you see yourself slipping into licentiousness, where you see apathy start to pop up in your life. You have to be willing to admit that to yourself. I was having a discussion with some kids the other day about this. I said, you know what the hardest thing is to do in your time of prayer that involves confession?

It's one thing to think it in your head, like to pray silently inside your head. I'm here to tell you right now, if you want the full weight of your sin and the honesty with your sin to have its true effect in your heart, say it out loud. You don't have to say it to anybody else out loud. You just need to say it out loud because there is something about verbalizing where you have failed and being honest with yourself about it that absolutely produces a purity in your life that very few other things can.

And once you have said it out loud to yourself, you have to say it out loud to yourself. You have to say it out loud to God because again, it produces a purity in your life. You have to keep your accounts with God short. And the only way that you can do that is if you are honest with yourself and if you are honest with God. Otherwise, you'll begin to drift.

Honesty is the moment where you go, wait, this is not where I want to be. And Lord, this is how I got there. So number one, you have to be aware. Number two, you have to be honest. And number three, you have to abide. You have to abide. You have to have an active and living relationship with Jesus that takes place every single day of your life. An abiding relationship that occupies every part of who you are.

An abiding relationship that is involved in not just the devotions you do first thing in the morning, but an abiding relationship that encapsulates the job that you have, the family that you have, the hobbies that you have, the workout that you have, every part of your life saturated with your abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. Because listen, that's what we were created for. Is an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. I was talking to my, man, I said my favorite teenager first service.

I realized I've got two of them. So I'm probably gonna be in trouble for that later. So pray for me. But earlier I said, I was having a conversation with my favorite teenager. I should say my favorite 17 year old the other day. I said, have you ever thought about the fact that God's greatest desire for you is for you to walk in fullness of joy? And she said, no, I genuinely haven't.

And I think a lot of people would probably say the same thing. Because usually when we think of walking with God, when we think of an abiding relationship with God, we think it's gotta be difficult. It's gotta be hard. Listen, there are some really hard things. There's a lot of really joyous things too. There is joy in the journey. But as you face hard things,

you can face the hard things and go, man, that's really hard. Or you can face the hard things and find the joy. Because if you're abiding, abiding relationship with your savior, it's amazing how you can find joy in so many things when your heart is in line in that abiding relationship with Jesus. And so brothers and sisters, beware of drifting and take the necessary precautions to keep yourself as close to Jesus as you possibly can.

Amen. Well, it's communion Sunday and there's a sea of children out there. So bring them on in. If you could keep, keep your eye out for your children as they bring them in. Only they haven't heard me yet to say bring them in. So bring them on in.

Come on in. What do you guys want to open that door for me? Thank you.

Come on in kids. And if I can invite the worship team to come on up.

There's some very tiny people here. I think right up here is where you are.

All right. So before, oh, found them. Perfect. Before, before, before we partake of communion, I just want to spend a few minutes talking about what we do here. As always inside of each of these trays is a couple of cups. I tell you this so that if you're new and you receive the cups, you're not like, hey, he forgot the cracker. Nope, we didn't. It's in there.

Top cup has the juice. Bottom cup has the cracker in it. As always in and of themselves, they're, they're pretty simple elements that don't have much meaning. But what they mean for us is everything to do with our faith. On that last night of the feast, Jesus, Jesus took the bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take and eat.

And while we don't believe we're actually eating the body of Jesus, it's something more than symbolic. It is a declaration of the fact that the broken body of Jesus is what saves us and making him a part of our life is what gives us communion with him. And then in the cup is some juice. And on that last great night of the feast, Jesus took that cup, the last cup, the cup of redemption.

He said, this is my blood, which is spilled for you. It's the blood of the new covenant. We are reminded that it is the blood of Jesus Christ that continually cleanses us from all sin. It's doesn't just cover our sin. It makes us brand new in Christ. And so we're commanded in scripture to make sure that we partake in a worthy manner. First of all, it means that we understand what we're doing.

Second of all, it means that you need to be a part of the family. Again, I would tell you that if you're not a part of the family, you're not a part of the family. If you're not a part of the family of Christ, A, today's your day of salvation. Because the longer you put that off, the greater chance you have of continuing to put that off. And if you wanna partake the way that God has intended,

you need to be a part of the family of Christ. And it's a simple step. It's a simple prayer of confessing that you're a sinner and asking God to make you brand new. There's nothing magical about the words. It's all about the condition of your heart. But for those of us that are believers, we're told to partake in a worthy manner. And that means to make sure that our heart's right

before the Lord, to make sure that we have dealt with bitterness in our lives, unforgiveness in our lives, to make sure that we have dealt with sin in our lives. And so as the worship team plays this last song, I just ask that you'd allow the Holy Spirit to do his work inside of your heart. As you receive the elements, please stand, and then we will partake together as a family. How deep the Father's love for us.