Beware of the Drifting; Hebrews 2:1-4 - Pastor Ryan - Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM

Good morning. It's good to see you guys. I'm glad you're here. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray. We'll get started.

Father, we come before you this morning. Thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord God. Just ask your blessing upon this time, Lord, as we open up your word and as we lift praise to you, Lord. Help us to focus on you. Help us to set everything else aside. There's a lavish praise upon you to soak up your word this morning, God. Move mightily by the power of your Holy Spirit this morning, Lord.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you'd like. God, we just give you praise for who you are, Father, for how big you are. God, we know that you're in the business of doing great and mighty things. So, Lord God, we just ask that you would come this morning, move by the power of your Holy Spirit, and do great things this morning. Amen.

Would you guys stand with me? The gift of grace is Jesus. There is no more than now to give. He is my joy.

Hope is only to Jesus.

How strange and divine I can see.

I will say to the Savior, He will rejoice in me. For in my need, His power is displayed. To this I hope. This vows. In my valley, He will be. Has been won. And I shall.

The future's sure. The price that has been paid. Jesus bled and suffered for my.

Has said that He is complete. Still my.

Father, we just praise you this morning. We thank you for allowing us to be here, God. We praise you for who you are, for how much you love us, God, for what you've done for us, and for how great you are, for how awesome and mighty you are, God. And now as Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, I just pray that you would overflow him, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. Give him the words to speak and give us an ear to hear and a heart to receive that word this morning, Father.

Give us tender hearts this morning. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate 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. I'm a handful of things. To take note of, as always, on the left-hand side, the things that are going on. And just a reminder that one of the things on the left-hand side is that Monty and Carol Johns will be starting their home fellowship this week up in Winfield. So if that is near you, go check that out.

A couple of other things in the middle section of your bulletin to take note of. Men's and women's breakfasts, plural, this month will be switching weekends. Usually the women are the second and the men are the third. This month, the men, we will be meeting on February 14th. The ladies will be meeting on February 21st. Also, just a quick word about that. There will be a minor change that starts taking place in women's ministry.

And that's that Diane Nichols is going to be taking over women's ministry, kind of heading that up. And she's going to be talking more about that at that breakfast. So the other thing to take note of in your bulletin is that tonight is intercessory prayer down at the other end of the hallway. It's going to be a little bit of a break. It's going to be a little bit of a break.

So if you have a chance to come out and join us for that, as we take time to pray for the needs of the body, the community, and the things that are going on within our nation. So those are the things that are going on. But before we get into our study this morning, one of the ministries that we support here at Calvary Chapel is the ministry of the Gideons. And usually about this time of year, we have the opportunity for Jim Butler to come share with us some of the things that go on.

Because we don't always realize just how powerful. The placement of God's word is in places like hotels and hospitals. So if we could invite Jim, if you'd like to come up and share some stories with us about what God's word is doing.

I'm all right, I guess. I came to tell you about all my ailments, but no, no, that's actually, I think most of you know that the Gideons pass out Bibles all over the world. And so I don't have anything. New to say, I want to kind of repeat what I've said last year. I emphasize the program friend of the Gideons, and we've had a number of people get online and sign up for that.

It's in case you didn't remember, it's a chance for you to buy Bibles at the same price. We have to buy Bibles. That'd be $5 for a full Bible or $3 for those new. And then you sign up for that. And that's the plan of salvation. And it's the plan of salvation. And in them is the plan of salvation. And as far as I'm concerned, it's the easiest way to evangelize that there is because you give somebody a gift.

And the Bible says that everybody's a friend to someone who gives them a gift. And then you eventually will get into the conversation and you could get right down to the point of if you died today, will you go to heaven? And so it's a, it's a great tool. I want to encourage everybody to. Subscribe. sign up it's not for speaking assignments it's just for you can have those bibles

the plan of salvation is in them and you can have a little ministry of your own and it's it's very rewarding i don't think there's anything much more rewarding than to see somebody born again now we go to as you know the hotels and motels we've got a long list here that's always interesting uh dentist's office doctor's offices mental health places we go to the bible schools and and the prisons and the jails and pass out to the policemen and the firemen in other words our camp is very active in getting by out in as many places as we can and i think i might have mentioned this before that the cali county camp has more churches participate in than any other camp in the state of kansas

in fact there's some question it might be the most prolific number wise of all the camps in the world because we have a wonderful wonderful base here of people who are true bible believers and it's it's exciting to know that we have more participating churches here than all of sedgwick county that's all of wichita and all of that so it's a thrill and so that's kind of what we do um i was just talking to a young lady i don't know where she is but she's uh she's uh she's a i think she's in the first grade in um teaching in central kansas and she's uh she has a family of three brothers and my daughter is in sedgwick county and she's in the local kansas community and she's her first mother and second daughter is um she's a second brother uh

and they work at a local ministry a church where she was raised in southeastern kansas in 1907 and guess what her parents had to go through and they're like we're not gonna let you and your brother you know get a job in the state of kansas and and that's what they did because she was raised in thailand 108 000 scriptures passed out there and the most exciting thing i think was the fact that of all of those people it was surprising that when they went into the schools and their buddhist schools and their muslim schools but they welcomed the gideon's in and one man said that the greatest thrill he's had is holding up that scripture and telling those young kids and they got to go to

every class and passed out about let's see 83 000 scriptures to the those children and it was it was so hard for me to believe that the muslims and the buddhists would welcome the christians into their schools and they were thrilled to have it one of the most exciting things that happened was that the muslims and the buddhists welcomed the christians into their schools and they were thrilled to have it one of the most exciting things that happened was that the muslims and the buddhists welcomed one motel owner said i've been wondering how i could get bibles in my motel and they walked in and he was shocked you know he said oh i wanted to know about jesus and

now i want can you tell me more so the reception was wonderful there and these blitzes we do two a month in major cities larger cities and and just kind of bomb them with bibles c um she i i read the psalms every day that 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 all enough for the beautiful gift of that testament i thought you'd like to know from somebody who has received that scripture and was in much need and we get to go to places like that all the time here's another testimony letter this comes from a pastor his name

is pastor raul tira he's from the philippines and by the way we have a one of our local get-ins he's just taken about say 40 000 scriptures over to just on his own and it costs more to ship them than it did to buy them and he's doing that right now on his own but this pastor says my my grandfather received a gideon testament while growing up in the philippines he read it every day and was saved he became a pastor and the only sacrifice he had was that man became pastor but his prayer was that his sons would become pastors too well god answered his prayer and all five of his sons became pastors and so did their 15 sons including me god has used our family to start over 500 churches all of that from one new testament early john

to a man in the philippines well i could go on and read stories about those in the philippines i think they are some of the less important books that god would give us a few different ways ofử go on and on but there's a song that i'm going to have played here in just a minute but i'm big on music i like uh good music and there's one of my favorites goes back 40 years people need the lord are you familiar with that and there's a line in there it says people need the lord people need the lord uh when will we realize that we must give our lives for people need the lord and if you can imagine if you were a gideon bible somewhere and you could talk you'd understand what's going to be played on this song here in just a minute so i ask that

you'll just pay attention to the words i'll get out of here and and have my open bible ready later you so with that thank you for the indulgence and i'm going to enjoy that song with you in just a minute all right thank you so much jim all right for our responsive reading this morning we are going to be in psalm one psalm one look at the new american standard for this part so that hopefully we sound the same if you need a copy should be one in a row around you and as you are turning to psalm one if you are able 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 one 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 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 in whatever he does he prospers his law he meditates day and night he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in whatever he does he prospers 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 i pray now as we take time to meditate on your word lord that you would use it powerfully in our lives

father i thank you that it never returns void but it always does the job that it was sent out to do and so may your word through the power of the holy spirit do its job in our lives today in jesus name amen you may be seated if you would open up in your bibles to the book of hebrews chapter 2 hebrews chapter 2 ultimately the first two chapters of hebrews deal with the same theme and that's that jesus is better than the angels but in the middle of his discourse in the middle of the writer of the hebrews discussion on jesus being far superior to the angels he brings to us the first of five warnings that he will give within the book of hebrews and the first warning that he gives to us is to beware of drifting to

beware of drifting and so we pick up in verse 1 of chapter 2 and this is what it says for this reason we must pay 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 peace penalty how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation after it was at first spoken through the lord it was confirmed to us by those who heard god also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the holy spirit according to his own will beware of drifting there's three things he's going to do for us here three things i want to look at this morning number one we're going to look at the

warning number two we're going to look at the why but the number three we're going to look at some questions so let's first look at the warning it starts off in verse one he says for this reason and anytime you read that you should ask yourself the question well what reason is he talking about and it immediately draws our attention back to what was previously said in chapter one in chapter one he told us that jesus is god's final revelation to man that in times past he has spoken to us through the prophets but in the last of these days he has spoken to us through the prophets and in the us through jesus and so god's final revelation to man is given to us through jesus christ and

considering that we should pay attention but not only that but because jesus has greater authority not only than the angels but even than the prophets because while in the times past he spoke to us through the prophets he has now spoken to us through his own son so for this reason because of who jesus is because he is the final revelation of god he the ultimate revelation of god and because he is far superior in his power and his and in his authority and in his position than anyone else we must pay closer attention because that's the next thing he says to pay closer attention that phrase means to give more earnest heed or careful attention it means to hold

to now again i've worked with kids for a really long time and i've talked to people for a really long time and i and i realized something when you're talking to people when i'm doing something like this and and i'm giving instructions or i'm teaching or you name the thing you can see a look begin to happen in people's eyes listen everybody does it i do it when i'm sitting in your position too you can see the look start to happen in someone's eyes they've started to glaze over either what you've said has become uninteresting to them or what you're thinking about for lunch or breakfast has become more interesting in your mind or there's no chief's game to pay attention to whatever it is something's become more interesting and you

begin to glaze over and so there's a a method that you're supposed to use as as a preacher you use some sort of a verbal cue to say now listen closely to what i'm about to say because that sort of sparks in your brain oh he's right i kind of got distracted a little bit that's the idea of what he presents here pay closer attention give heed to or hold on tightly to you could almost say anchor yourself to the things that you have heard but he says to pay closer attention to more carefully to the truth now he has to tell us this because sometimes our ears become dull he has to tell us this because it's our tendency to not pay attention he has to tell us this because

we are a distractible group of people is to tell us this because there are so many things around us that are pulling for our attention that he has to remind us to pay careful attention and to hold on to why so that you don't get distracted by the truth and so that you don't get distracted by the do not drift away from it, so that you do not drift away from it. That word to drift means to glide by or to slip by. The Greek word is actually used to speak of snow sliding off of a soldier's uniform. That's the idea of that word, to slip by or to glide by. And the idea is that you not

drift away from or slip away from the truth. Now, I want to spend just a couple of minutes talking about this, because I want to create the picture in your mind of what he's talking about here. So I've got a couple of buddies, and we like to fish together. We're not very good at it, but we like to do it. And we bought a little boat. And when I say a little boat, I mean a little

boat. The three of us just barely fit into it. It's a little flat bottom boat. It's got a little trolling motor. And one time we had an anchor, and we go to farm ponds, big farm ponds, and we fish. And we don't get out on big bodies of water, because it's not that kind of boat. But we got out on this big farm pond one time, and we got ready to throw the anchor in.

Listen, I'm going to tell you something, and I'm not going to charge you for this one. When you have an anchor for a boat, do you know what the most important thing you need to do with the anchor is? Tie it to the boat, right? Listen, that anchor will always do its job, just not necessarily for your boat, okay? That anchor is going to sink. It's going to hold tight.

But if it's not tied to your boat, listen, it does you no good. That's why he says, hold on to the truth so that you don't drift away. Well, so we go out to this big farm pond, and we find the spot. You know how it is. You're like, oh man, a little overhanging trees right here, some deep water out here. This is exactly where we need to be. We're going to catch some

fish here. And so we stop, and we drop anchor. And we've never said that more literally in our entire lives. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. We drop anchor. the anchor. It just goes, and we're like, that thing wasn't tied to the boat. The anchor did

its job, just not for our boat. Well, we don't want to go back. We're already out in the middle of water. We're in the perfect spot. Let's just fish. And so we start fishing. And I'm here to tell you right now, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to see a boat drift because it doesn't happen fast, does it? I mean, if there's really strong current, like you're in a river or

something like that, that'll happen. But when you're on a body of water, like a pond, you don't drift fast. You don't even notice it's happening. What happens is you're fishing along and all of a sudden you're going, why are we way too close to the trees now? Like we're way closer to the trees than we were like five minutes ago. And I didn't even notice that it happened. Why are we

almost over to the bank now? I didn't even notice that this happened. Listen, because that's what drifting is. Drifting is moving and not even noticing that it happens. And drifting takes place when your anchor is not tied to your boat. That's why the writer to the Hebrews says, for this reason, pay closer attention, give more earnest heed to, give more careful attention to the things that you have heard so that you don't

drift away. I have a question for you. What is your life doing right now? Are you anchored to the truth? Is the, is the anchor tied to your boat? Or are you every now and then looking up and realizing you have drifted further away from the location that you intended to stay in? Because that's what drifting is. He gives us this warning. He says, for this reason, because it's so important,

pay much closer attention to what we have heard, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, lest you drift away. Now, we will deal at the end of the study with what it, what we drift into and what causes drifting. But I want you to hold onto that warning because that warning is so important to us. Now, after he gives the warning, he gives the why. Four, verse two, if the word spoken through angels

proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect the truth of the gospel? And if we don't, how will we escape if we don't so great a salvation? The first thing that he tells us about is the word that was spoken through angels. What was the word that was spoken through angels? Well, the word that was spoken

through the angels was the law. We're told in a couple of different places in scripture, Deuteronomy in the Psalms and in the book of Acts. And then here we're told that the mediator that actually spoke the word was through the angels. And this law was a binding law that was given. This old covenant was a binding law that was given. He says, if this law proves unalterable,

that word unalterable means steadfast or authentic, steadfast or authentic. In other words, if it was the real law and it was the steadfast law and it proved unalterable, and if that law that was proved unalterable, every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty. Every transgression and disobedience received punishment. The word transgression means to overstep the line or to step over the line. And if that law was proven unalterable, then it was

over the boundary. That's a transgression. You see the boundary, you step over the boundary. That is willful sin, but also any sort of disobedience. The idea of disobedience here is a neglecting to hear. That's what the word actually means. In other words, you have neglected the law. So if you break the law, either through abject sin or neglect, it is punishable by the law.

If that law that came through angels had, that sort of power to it, he says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? If the law spoken through angels had a penalty for breaking of it, then how much more so is there a penalty for neglecting the great salvation that we have received through Jesus? That word neglect is kind of interesting here. Neglect means to have the opportunity, but to ignore, or to disregard it. To have the opportunity, but you ignore it, or you disregard it.

Now, I want to remind us of two things. Number one, this is a letter written to the church. This is not written to unbelievers. This is written to believers. Number two, there's a warning for us to pay attention to here. As believers in Jesus Christ, most of us are never going to face the option of rejecting the truth. Most of us will face the option of neglecting the truth. Most of us will face the option of rejecting the truth.

Most of us will face the option of neglecting the truth. You probably know enough about the truth that you're never going to completely reject it, but you probably know enough about the truth and you have enough flesh inside of you that you may tend to neglect it. You may tend to ignore it or to disregard it. We often ignore or disregard the truth simply by giving into law or giving into sin. We'll deal with that again here in just a little bit. He says, how shall we

escape if we neglect so great a salvation? He goes on to describe this salvation. He says, after it was at first spoken through the Lord, number two, confirmed to us by those who heard, number three, God testified to it by signs and wonders and miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his word. He says, this great salvation was first of all declared by the Lord.

When did the Lord declare the message of salvation? It's probably a really good question to ask right there, right? When did Jesus declare how you're saved? Well, I want to point out two different places in scripture where it says this. The first is John chapter 3 verse 16. John chapter 3 verse 16, Jesus says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but would

have everlasting life. That, in a nutshell, is the gospel. Jesus declared this gospel. And if there was any question in John chapter 6, Jesus was asked the question, what must we do to work the works of God? And Jesus said, this is the work of God that you must do. Believe on him whom he has sent. Both of those two statements are what build the biggest case for

salvation by faith alone. Not faith plus works, not faith plus sacraments, not faith plus anything else, but salvation by faith alone. Jesus himself, the author of salvation, we're told in the book of Hebrews, declared at least two times, the method of salvation is by faith in the Son of God. By faith in the finished work of the Son of God. How do we know it's by faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross? Well, if you

bump earlier into the John chapter 3, you will find that Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. 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. He says, how shall we escape any kind of punishment if we neglect so great a salvation which was first declared through the Lord? It was declared through the Lord in the gospel messages. But number two, it was confirmed by those who heard. In other words, all of Jesus's

apostles went out and they declared the exact same thing. They declared the same thing. They declared the same message. This is gospel continuity. If you look at the book of Acts, and if you look at the epistles that are written, what you will find is there is a continuity of the message because everything had to go back to what Jesus said. Is it the message that Jesus gave of

salvation by faith alone? Is it the message that Jesus gave of what sin looks like, of what salvation looks like, and what repentance looks like? Because it was confirmed by those who spoke the message. Not only was it confirmed by the apostles and the message that they spoke, but God testified to it. How did he testify to it? With both signs and wonders, various miracles, and by gifts of the

Holy Spirit. Every time there was a new revelation of Jesus Christ, new revelation is the wrong phrase. I don't want to be misunderstood here. Every time there was a greater revelation of who God was, it was always accompanied by the Holy Spirit. It was always accompanied by the Holy Spirit. It was always accompanied by signs and wonders. Think about this. When God began to work through

Moses, he was accompanied with signs and wonders because they testified to the power of God at work in him. When the prophets began to prophesy, I think Elijah and Elisha, God accompanied that with great signs and wonders to testify that it was really his power that was at work. When Jesus came onto the scene, God testified to it by the great signs and wonders. That's actually in the book of John. Jesus says,

When the apostles began to take the message of truth out, part of the testifying factor of that was the great signs and wonders that were done. When we see the gospel of Jesus Christ going into other countries that don't have God's word in front of them, God accompanies that with great signs and wonders. Why don't we see signs and wonders always here in the United States of America? We tell you there's two reasons why. Number one, because they've been abused. Signs and wonders

have been abused in this country. I just sat in a meeting with a couple of other wonderful young men who love Jesus and we're working on the playbooks for FCA conference. There's all of these documentaries coming out right now about spiritual abuse, about guys like Michael Todd and all the stuff that's gone on with Bethel. Part of the abuse is that they are faking miracles in order to try to bolster their ratings basically. And you go, I sometimes I think

that's why God doesn't do the signs and the wonders anymore is because everybody wants the signs and the wonders. Nobody wants the truth. Everybody wants the story. Everybody wants the Instagram reel. Everybody wants the cool thing that they can put out to make everybody come to their church. But nobody wants to really hear the truth of sin and repentance. When you read these

stories, and you should, like I post all the magazines out there from far-reaching ministries. I post all the magazines out there from Voice of the Martyrs. You find that what God is doing in some of these other countries is fantastic, just like you see in the book of Acts. Why? Because they need the testimony of the truth of the word of God. But we have abused it in our nation for the sake of marketing the gospel.

And that's when God says, listen, I can't do that anymore. That's on you. And I think the second reason why we don't see as much of the signs and wonders is because we have the written word of God right here in front of us. We have the testimony of the truth. We have the truth of the word of God here in front of us. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe that the gifts are for today. I do not believe that in 1 Corinthians chapter 13,

when he says, when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with. I don't believe that that which is perfect is referring to the word of God. I believe that which is perfect is referring to the coming of Jesus when we no longer need the gifts. I absolutely believe that the gifts are for today. I've seen them exercised. I've seen people speak in tongues, and I've seen it be a beautiful thing where it gets interpreted,

and Jesus is glorified through the whole thing, where it's not a show. It's not a sideshow. There's absolutely beautiful things that take place, and I see God be praised. I have seen gifts of healing where I have literally seen people be healed. Quite frankly, I've seen one recently where I've seen someone be healed, and I'm just being honest about that. I've seen these

things take place, and nothing that I ever saw was out of control or wacky or people dancing around in circles. It was simply the laying on of hands and prayer. That's all it was. So I do believe that these things are for today, but I believe that with what we have today, God is looking for us to have faith in his word, not in just the signs, which is why he says, and I want you to pay really close attention to this, God also testifying with them both by signs, wonders, various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, this is really important, according to his own will.

When God gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, is it according to his will, which means that it's not some light switch I can turn on and off and just decide to use the gift in that moment. It has to be a moving of the Holy Spirit, because sometimes God chooses to heal, which I've seen, and sometimes God chooses not to heal, which I've seen. And both times, God is still sovereign. In both ways, God is testifying, to the power of the gospel. And so he tells us, he says, for this reason,

you must pay closer attention to what we've heard so that you don't drift away, so that you don't slip away, so that you don't slide away. Why? Because if the word that was spoken through angels, the law, had punishable offenses that went along with it, it is unalterable. And if you transgress or disobey, there is punishment that goes along with this. How shall we escape if we

neglect something that we don't know? And so God tells us, he says, for this reason, you must pay greater than the law. How will we escape if we neglect something that the law was pointing to? Because the message of the gospel was first spoken through Jesus. It was confirmed by the apostles, and it was testified to by the signs and the wonders and the miracles and the working of the

Holy Spirit by the will of God. Well, as I've been working through all of these things, this is what we're going to spend the last half of our message on here this morning. As I was working through all these things, I was working through all of these things, and I was working through all of these things. I asked myself three questions. Again, if you looked at my journal that I start studying in,

you'll find that these three questions are in there. What do we drift into? What causes drifting? How do we keep from drifting? Those feel like fair questions, don't they? If he just gave us this stern of a warning that if we're not careful that we could drift away, if this warning is given to us, we should pay attention to it. So number one, what? Do we drift into? Well, my buddies and I, when we were fishing, we drifted into trees, and we

drifted over to the bank, and we drifted out into the middle of water where there were no fish, and we just kept having to constantly reset ourselves. Well, it's a little bit different for us as believers in Jesus Christ. I wrote down three things that we tend to drift into, and I think most things can fit into these three categories, law, license, and apathy. The first thing that we drift into is we tend to drift into law. In other words,

we start really well in our walk with Jesus Christ, and honestly, this is why Hebrews was written. We start really well in our walk with Jesus Christ, but pretty soon we start establishing rules for ourselves. We start establishing rules that may have some biblical basis and may not have some biblical basis to it, and we turn these rules into the way that we live our lives, and pretty soon the rules that we came up with are even more important than what it has to say in Scripture. I am amazed at some of the rules we make for ourselves.

Some of the rules that churches make and what that has done to church culture today. I think about the fact that some churches say you have to use one particular translation of the Bible, otherwise you're wrong. That if you don't use this one particular translation of the Bible, that you're living in sin. And I'm like, well, first of all, if you're really going to get that worked up about it, then you should probably go back to the original. I mean, honestly,

at some point in time, just learn Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic. So that you can go and read in its original what it has to say. But you probably don't have time for that. So you should just read the translation that sits there in front of you. But that's some laws that we make. I see some people make laws about the clothes that you wear. Well, you know, if you don't wear this particular kind of clothing,

you know, women need to wear dresses and men always need to wear pants. I will never forget. Listen, I'll probably step on some toes here, but that's okay. I don't mind. I'll never forget when I was in high school, I worked at Prairie View Christian Camp, and there was one particular church group that came in and they were really legalistic about things. And man, me and my buddy got in really big trouble. This was wrong on my part. I'm just

going to say that right now, but we did get in really big trouble. Women had to wear dresses and men had to wear pants, right? It is July 23rd in Kansas. And the men are out there wearing pants going back and forth to the camp. This is the best part. No mixed bathing, right? Like men and women can't swim together. They can't swim together. They can't swim together. They can't swim together.

They can't swim together. They can't swim together. They can't swim together. They can't swim together. Listen, the older I get, the more I think that's maybe not a terrible idea, especially with teenagers. But anyways, neither here nor there. Men and women couldn't swim together. Only my favorite part was that the men, when they walked from their dorm down to the pool, they wrapped a

towel around their legs. And all I could think was, ain't no girl getting stumbled by your hairy legs. That's just all that there is to it. There is no girl that's just like, dang, look at them hairy things. Oh man, right? That is not happening in life. That is an odd, odd law to make. That's what we do. We make up these kinds of laws. We make up these kinds of

rules. Women can't wear makeup. Men need to do that. Have you ever noticed that the laws are always harder on women than they are on men? You ever noticed that? I think that's terrible. Why do we treat women like that? But we drift into law and we start creating laws. You know why we create laws? You know why we drift into laws? Because if we drift away from our confidence in who we are

in Christ, then we need to create some new confidence in Christ. And we do that by keeping rules. Well, I feel really good about myself, not because of what Jesus did for me, but because of what I'm doing for him. And it's an unfortunate place for us to be. The second thing that we drift into is we drift into license. We drift into license. License is where we start allowing

ourselves freedoms that God never intended for us to have. Because while some people make laws for themselves to feel better, other people give themselves a license to sin that they should never actually have in their life. Well, it's okay. God's grace will cover that. God's grace will cover me. A little bit of sin never hurt anyone. I actually had a guy tell me one time, sometimes

you just need to allow yourself the freedom to sin sometimes because you need to really understand God's grace. I was like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. That's the least biblical thing perhaps I've ever heard in my entire life. And I had a pastor tell me that. Not a Calvary Chapel pastor. I want you to know that. But we can drift into this license. And

as we start to give ourselves freedom that God never intended, listen, it never happens fast, right? You never just immediately jump into some major sin. You give yourself inches here and there, little spots, little areas of compromise. And pretty soon those little areas of compromise turn into big areas of sin because you've given yourself the license. And pretty soon you're fishing along thinking you're in the middle of the pond. And

next thing you know, you're stuck in the weeds because you drifted and you didn't even notice that it happened. But the third thing, and I think probably one of the most dangerous things, that we drift into as Christians in the 21st century is apathy. Apathy. And of course, my definition of apathy is, I don't care. That's apathy. And eventually we get to the point where

it's like, you have enough of Jesus to feel good about yourself, but not enough to change your life. Jesus actually addressed this in the book of Revelation, the church of Laodicea, which is interesting because of all of the churches that have been in the book of Revelation, the church of Laodicea, had all of the issues that he addressed. Laodicea is the one that he was the hardest on because they were neither hot nor cold. They were lukewarm. He said, because you're lukewarm,

I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth. But apathy is one of the greatest places that the enemy wants to get us into. Because if you're apathetic, you put off a form of Christianity that nobody wants any part of. And you become ineffective for the kingdom. And we drift into this slowly, but surely. It starts with one day of not really taking any time to be in God's word or to be in

prayer, unless you don't have to live by law. If you miss a day, it's okay. Jesus still loves you. But you can't let one day turn into two days, right? Again, I work with athletes a lot. And the big things that athletes say is, one loss can't turn into two. Because if one loss turns into two, then it turns into three. Instead, what they like to look at is, and I was just talking to

a group of basketball players the other day, and they said, listen, we're about to make it three. Because they know that one win can turn into two, can turn into three. You see, that's not apathy. Apathy starts to say, oh, well, it's okay. Because the problem is, pretty soon, you stop missing church, and you stop missing the Bible. Enough days of missing it, and you stop

missing it. And we drift into this place where we just don't really care. And you're no longer moved by conviction. You're no longer moved by the worship. You're no longer moved by anything. You just kind of exist in the body of Christ. Those are the things that we drift into. The second question I asked myself was, what causes drifting? And this one took me a little bit longer to answer. And I read several

commentaries, and I wasn't real pleased with any of them that I read, because I felt like nobody really addressed the issue. I don't want to just tell you that there's a problem. I want to tell you how you ended up with that problem, and how you can keep from having that problem. I don't like when they just say, well, this is what it says. Let's move on with our lives.

No, let's apply it. So what causes drifting? What causes us to slip into law, or license, or apathy in our lives? Well, one particular guy that I was reading started bringing up like busyness and things like that. And it's like, in that moment, all I could think of was the parable of the sower. And I thought, ah, this is how you drift. Jesus tells this parable, right? The parable of the sower. And in the parable of the sower, Jesus says,

Jesus tells this parable, right? The parable of the sower. And in the parable of the sower, the sower goes out and he sows seed. We know that the seed is God's word. And it falls on four different types of soil. The first type of soil that it falls on is the hard soil. And the hard soil, Satan comes along and he, or the birds of the air come along and they pick up the seed, and it never has any opportunity to take root because the soil

was hard and it was stolen by the birds of the air. The second type of soil is the thorny soil. It goes in, it takes root, but eventually it gets choked out by all the things. And the third type of soil is the rocky soil, where it starts to grow. But eventually it hits the rocks and it has no, no root. And so when difficulties come along, it dies out and it can't do anything. Then there's the fourth type of soil. We'll

talk about that in just a minute. But of course, the fourth type of soil is the fertile soil that it falls on. And it ultimately ends up producing fruit, sometimes up to a hundred fold. Well, as I got to thinking about this, what causes drifting? Well, I wrote down three things. Number one, Satan steals the word. Satan steals the word. How does this happen? Well, of course, the first way that Satan likes to steal the word is by stealing

the word from us is through sin. Because usually sin will keep me from the word of God, right? Because I'm living in sin. I oftentimes don't want to get into the word because I know it's going to tell me what I'm doing is wrong. And I don't want to be told what I'm doing is wrong. And so I don't ever get into God's word. And so the word is robbed from me. It's stolen from me by, by Satan through sin. But the biggest way that Satan

steals the word from the believer in Jesus Christ is through over-familiarity. And I don't mean you just know the word too well. I mean, you think you know the word too well. Well, I don't need to, I don't need to attend the Bible study on Matthew. I've already read that book. Do you know, I've actually heard somebody say that before. Well, I don't need to go to that Bible study. I've already studied

that one before. Listen, my friend, if you've already studied, studied it before, then you've been introduced. Let's do it again. You can't do it enough. You cannot get into God's word enough. I've told this story a hundred times. I'm going to tell it again now. It's one of my favorite stories about one of my favorite Bible teachers, J. Vernon McGee, very last,

one of the very last times he ever spoke in public. And he had to be helped up on stage because he was so frail from the cancer that had riddled his body. He got up there and he taught on, I think it was Psalm 91. I may have my Psalm off on that. It was one of the Psalms. And he said, I can't tell you how many times I've taught this Psalm, but Jesus just showed me something brand new. Jesus just showed me

something brand new. If you think you're over-familiar with the word, then pride has crept up into your heart because you can never plumb the depths. One of the greatest truths about the word is that it is simple enough for a child to understand and complex enough for the greatest philosopher to spend the rest of his life studying it. But that over-familiarity, us saying, I know that already. I've heard that

already. I can tell you everything that there is to know about that. Well, then you probably need to study it again because self-righteousness has taken its hold in your life and you need the Holy Spirit to convict you of that. But that word is robbed from us. And when the word is robbed from us, we tend to drift. The second thing that I think causes drifting is the afflictions or the persecutions of

the world. This is actually what was taking place with the Hebrew people that we're being written to right now. Affliction and persecution had started to choke out God's word. It was starting to choke out the truth in their life. And so they were drifting because the affliction and the persecution was affecting them. And sometimes when difficulties come, they're

things come up in life. What's the first thing that goes in our life? Well, I obviously don't have time to spend in the word right now because I'm just too busy. I obviously don't have time to spend in the word right now because I've got all of these other things to worry about. Forgetting that if that's not first, you'll never figure out how to handle all of the affliction and the persecution of life. But sometimes when life gets hard,

when your marriage is struggling, when you're struggling with raising your kids, when you're struggling with your job, you tend to drift from God's word because you start relying the wisdom of man instead of the wisdom of God, and you drift from the truth of God's word. But of course, the third way that it happens in our lives is through the cares of this life and what Jesus calls the deceitfulness of wealth. See, that's that rocky soil. The roots start to go down, but the cares of this life become too much and it just stops.

And you never develop deep roots. You remain shallow in your faith. And can I say that much of what we're seeing, unfortunately, in the United States of America today is a shallow faith. You know why? Because a depth of faith requires deep roots. And while there's joy in the journey, sometimes there's difficulty in the journey. But those roots have to go down deep.

And when those roots don't go down deep, we tend to drift from God's word. That anchor. That anchor is no longer there to hold us. Well, that brings me to the third question. If we drift into law or license or apathy, and what causes drifting is basically God's word not doing its work in our heart. Number three, how do we keep from drifting? How can we become people who pay much closer attention

to what we have heard so that we do not drift? Again, I think there's three things that we need to do. Number one, and I haven't put these up here. Number one, you have to be aware. You have to be aware. When my buddies and I were out in the boat and we threw the anchor, we were aware of the fact that we were going to drift. And so we paid a little closer attention because of it.

Too many of us in this room right now and watching online, and it will be in the room in second service, myself included in that group, we're not always aware. We're not always aware of our potential for drifting. We're not always aware of our potential for drifting. And I think one of the greatest things that we can have is the awareness that at any point in time, my life can begin to drift.

I need to be aware of where I need to be and aware of my potential to drift away from it. C.H. Spurgeon has a great book. It's called Lectures to My Students. He wrote it for his teacher's college. They were actually, sermons that he had given to the young men that he was training to be evangelists. And the very first chapter is called The Minister's Self-Watch.

The Minister's Self-Watch. And the entire point of that chapter is that as ministers of Jesus Christ, we have to keep an incredibly close eye on our walk with Jesus Christ, lest we drift away. You see, if I'm aware that there's a potential problem, I pay attention to that potential problem. I am not the most graceful human being on snow and ice. I'm just gonna tell you that right now.

When I was in my early 20s, I did snow removal up in Kansas City at the Wrinkle Ranch that I worked at, the old folks community that I worked at. I love y'all. I'm on my way, okay? And I was a champion because I'd get in a hurry. I still do. Get in a hurry and I shovel, shovel, shovel, shovel, shovel. And I'd go down to the end and I'd go back. I had a pattern how I did it.

Shovel one side, turn around, come back, shovel the other side, you move on with life. Well, you know what happens when you shovel the first layer of snow off? It gets really slick underneath. And I was a champion of getting to the end and landing on my rear end. I'm older now and I'm aware of it, right? I had to have been an incredibly funny human being when I walked in first thing this morning

from this parking lot. I want you to know right now, I walked like this. This is my backpack. In case you're, I'm not holding Gandalf's staff. This is my backpack. I'm what? And my coffee. I'm walking like this. I'm walking like this the entire time. Why? Because I am aware of my potential to eat it at any moment. And because of my awareness of my potential

to eat it at any moment, I took all precautions to keep myself from doing so. That's what we have to be as believers in Jesus Christ. We have to be aware so that we will take the proper precautions not to do so. Number two, we have to be honest. You have to be honest with yourself and you have to be honest with God. You have to be honest with yourself about the potential downfalls you see in your life.

You have to be honest with God about the potential downfalls you see in your life. You have to be honest with yourself when you see sin start to show up in your life. And you have to be honest with God when you start to see sin show up in your life. Because if you can't be honest with yourself, you can't be honest with God. And if you can't be honest with God,

you can't be right with God. Because 1 John says this, he who says he is without sin makes God a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever confesses, his sin. He is faithful and just to forgive him of his sin, to cleanse him from all unrighteousness. And so we have to have this heart of honesty with ourselves and with the Lord. And when we see things show up, we have to deal with them immediately. I started to make this point,

keep your accounts short, but I realized if we don't start with honesty, you can't keep your accounts short. You have to keep those accounts short with God. When you see sin, deal with sin so that you don't drift. And when you see legalism and law pop up in your life, confess those things. And when you see the apathy come up in your life, deal with those things.

But again, it requires honesty with yourself, which will turn into honesty with God. So if we're going to keep from drifting, number one, we have to be aware. Number two, we have to be honest. And number three, it's my favorite, you have to abide. You have to abide. You have to have a consistent living and active relationship. With your Savior. Because if you don't have that consistent living and active relationship with

your Savior, He can't show you what's going on in your life. He can't reveal the pitfalls to you. He can't reveal the issues to you. He can't show you the blind spots. Not only that, but you can't live in that joy. An abiding relationship with Jesus Christ produces joy. I was having a conversation with one of my favorite teenagers the other day. And I asked her, I said,

have you ever thought about the fact that God's greatest desire for you is that you live in fullness of joy? And she said, no, I really haven't. And I think that that's the way we all live sometimes. We all live thinking that God does not want us to live in fullness of joy. God wants us to live a drudgery of not doing bad things and trying to do good things. And

listen, if that's the way that you're viewing Jesus, it's time to change your view of Jesus. Because He wants you to walk in fullness of joy. Is walking with Jesus hard? Yeah. But anything worth doing is. But is there incredible joy in it? Yes. There's incredible joy in it. But you don't know the incredible joy if you don't know the abiding walk. See, if you're not abiding, it's

drudgery. If you're abiding, it's joy. And so if you want to keep from drifting, be aware, be honest, and abide. God has so much more for us than we give Him credit for. Amen. Well, this morning is Communion Sunday. And so I'd like to go ahead and invite the worship team to come on up and invite the ushers to come on in. As we get ready to partake of communion, I'd like

to spend just a few minutes talking about what we do here. My speech doesn't get original on this, but it is still true. Inside of these trays are cups that are stacked together. The top cup, of course, has the juice and the bottom cup has the cracker. I tell you, if you're new, you don't sit there and go, it's in there, I promise. In and of themselves, pretty basic things, but what they mean for us is so much more. Because what they mean for us is

the truth of what holds us together as the body of Christ and what unites us to Jesus. In that same chapter, John chapter 6, Jesus says, if you don't drink my blood and eat my flesh, you have no part in me, which, of course, is not literal. In nature, Jesus was using hyperbole in there, but the hyperbole that he was speaking of is making Jesus a fundamental part of who we are. Through faith, we take in who he is, and he becomes a part of who we are. That's that idea of him making his home inside of us.

On that last great night of the feast, Jesus took that bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take and eat. So every time we partake of that bread, we take and eat. And we take and eat. And we take and eat. And we take and eat. And we declare to the entire world that Jesus's body was broken, not as a helpless martyr, but as a victorious savior. And so as we partake of it, we are reminded

of the great sacrifice that he made for us. And he took that cup, the cup of redemption, and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Take and drink. And we are reminded that the only thing that allows us to go boldly to the throne of grace is the blood of Jesus Christ, because it doesn't just cover our sin, it cleanses our sin.

As we're told in the book of Isaiah, though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. And so every time we partake of the cup, we declare to the world that the blood that Jesus shed on that cross was enough to cover us and make us clean. One of my favorite songs by Jairus de Clay, several simple words that say, Jesus' blood has never failed me yet. And so as we partake, we are reminded that what we do is serious because this is the declaration of the death of Jesus Christ for us. And so we're told

to partake in a worthy manner. And part of that is knowing that you are a part of the body of Christ. And so if you're here this morning and you are not a part of the body of Christ, you've never, never put your faith in Jesus, then that's the first step that you need to take is to confess your sins and accept the sacrifice that he's made for you. If you're here this morning and you're a believer, partaking means making sure that your heart is right with the Lord. And so as they play this last song, I would just ask you to just deal with things

between you and the Lord that need dealt with. If you've noticed drifting in your life, it's time to tie the anchor back to the boat. It's time to get honest with yourself and honest with God and get back into that place where he wants for you to be. So the ushers are going to come. They're going to hand out these elements while they sing this last song. When you receive your elements, if you would please stand and we'll partake together.

Thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that you have made for us. Father, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, things that you endured, the crown of thorns, Lord, knowing that the chastisement for our peace was laid upon you and that by your stripes were healed. So Father, I thank you for, thank you for the broken body of Jesus for us. I thank you for the blood of Jesus that was shed for us. I thank you for the

blood that was shed for us, the blood that continually cleanses us from all sin, the blood that makes us right with you, the blood that had the life. And so Father, we just thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus. And may we ever keep in our minds that this is the one hope that we have in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, I thank you that

you have brought us here this morning. I thank you for your word, Lord, that confronts us where we need confronted. And Lord, I just ask that you would use your word in our lives this week to keep us close to you, to keep us anchored in your truth. And we just thank you and praise you, Father, in Jesus name. Amen. Love you all. Be blessed.