This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to week two, so it's chapter two of our look through the
book of Hebrews. This is day one. We're going to look at verses one to four
today, and as we get into Hebrews chapter two, we're going to see that this is
the first of five warnings that the writer of Hebrews gives to those who are
listening to this book for the first time, and then also to us today.

This is written to you too. You might call these encouragements. You might call
these warnings.

I call them encouragements because they're encouraging faith in our lives, but I
understand the word warning because they're not easy encouragements. They're
encouragements that come with a bit of a bite to them. They really warn us about
staying away from the things in life that can ruin our life, ruin our faith.

Listen to what the writer has to say in verses one to four. We must pay more
careful attention, therefore, to what we've heard so that we do not drift away.
"For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and
disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such
a great salvation?

This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by
those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various
miracles, the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. " This
verse talks about what we've heard and a message that was spoken by the angels.

What we've heard, he's talking about the good news about Jesus, the news that
Jesus has given us salvation, has given us life. And I love the pictures it
gives us here. It was announced by the Lord, it was confirmed by those who first
heard him, and then God confirmed it.

And he talks about signs and wonders and miracles and the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. You can see the confirmation of the good news of Christ even today in
the ways that the gifts of the Holy Spirit work in the church. But this passage
begins with a warning, a warning about our greatest danger, the danger of
drifting.

The greatest danger to my faith, the greatest danger to your faith is not sudden
rejection of the faith, it's drifting away from the faith. And all of us know
this because all of us know Christians, have known believers, followers of
Christ, who are no longer walking with him. There was a day when they were
deeply involved in the things of God, they were deeply involved in church, they
were deeply involved in ministry, but now they're not involved at all.

They just somehow drifted away. I could look at other people and say, "Well, I'm
so sorry, God, that happens to other people, but unless I take a lesson from
them, I've really missed the point. " The truth of the matter is, all of us face
the same troubles, the same temptations.

We can all drift in our lives. And one of the questions we need to ask ourselves
from time to time, in fact, I invite you to ask yourself this question right
now, is the question, "Has there ever been a time in my life when I was closer
to God than I am right now? " Just in your mind, "Has there ever been a time in
my life when I was closer to God than I am right now?

" If the answer is yes, yes, there was a time when I was closer, then there's
been some drift that has happened in your life. And the question is, how do you
get back? We're going to look at that in these verses today.

If the answer is no, I feel as close to God as I've ever been, I want to get
closer, but I feel as close as I've ever been, then the question is, how do you
keep from drifting? How do you keep getting closer and closer and closer to Him?
We're going to talk about three specific things out of these verses today.

First, you admit what caused you to drift away. Second, you realize that God
wants you back. And third, you return to Him immediately.

So first of all, you admit what caused you to drift away. One of the things
you've got to do is be honest with yourself at the beginning. You realize it's
easy to drift.

You know how easy it is to drift? In order to drift, here's what you do.
Nothing.

Just don't do anything. You take a boat at sea, a ship at sea, just don't do
anything, it will drift. And it's often imperceptible.

You don't even know it's happening. Drifting though, always takes you in one
direction, away. It takes you away from where you were, away from where God
wants you to be.

If you look at these verses we've just read, there are some causes of drifting
that are talked about. Three different words in verses two and three. The word
violation, the word disobedience, and the word ignore.

When I drift, sometimes it is every violation and disobedience talks about here.
Sometimes it's a violation. That's a willful sin.

That's the idea there. There's something that I decide to do that I know God did
not want me to do, and because of that I have this guilt that I'm dealing with
in my life because I haven't dealt with it with Him. Sometimes that's the
reason.

But more often it's this second word, I think. It's the word disobedience. This
word has an interesting root to it.

The root behind this word disobedience means unwillingness to hear. You see, in
my own life, and I think this may be true for many of you, the reason I drift is
not because I do something that I feel that God didn't want me to do. It's just
because I didn't listen.

I didn't take the time to listen to Him. I'm unwilling to hear it. I keep His
word.

I keep His voice at arm's length because I want to do what I want to do. So I'm
unwilling to hear. Is there any point in your life where you're unwilling to
hear what God has to say?

Any relationship in your life? Any habit in your life? Any business decision in
your life where, "God, I don't want to know your opinion on that one.

I'd rather not know because I think I know what it might be and I don't want to
hear it. " Unwillingness to hear is one of the major causes of drift. And the
next word that's used is just like that word.

It's the word ignore. I neglect things. When I start to neglect things in my
spiritual life, that's when I drift.

I neglect God's word. I neglect God's people. I neglect God's voice.

I neglect ministry. A little bit maybe at first and then more and more and more
and then the drift sets in in life. So you admit what caused you to drift away.

It might be overconfidence. "I've got it. Me and God, we're like this.

" And you start to drift because you start to neglect your faith. It might be
laziness. You're tired and out of that comes a laziness in your faith.

It might be fear of ridicule. It might be that you want immediate gratification
somewhere else. It all has to do with these words, violation and disobedience
and ignoring God.

If you look at a very practical way of looking at this, a familiar pattern I see
in many people's lives is, "How do I know I'm drifting? First, I don't want to
give anymore. I want it all for myself.

" Second, giving by the way is a major indicator of your heart towards God.
First I stop giving and second I stop praying. I just don't have time.

I'd like to pray but I just don't have time to pray anymore. And third, I stop
being with God's people. I can't come to church anymore.

I can't come to a Bible study anymore. I just don't have time. And then all of a
sudden I find myself in some place I never thought I'd be.

I drifted away. If these are signs in your life, what do you do? You admit what
caused you to drift away.

You say, "I'm sorry, God. " Now, as you do this, one of the things that all of
us have to do is realize you can't take God for granted. I know that His grace
is given without measure to us, but if we start to take God for granted and feel
like, "Well, He's going to love me no matter what, so it doesn't matter what I
do," we've totally missed the point of salvation.

That's why He says in these verses, "How can we escape punishment if we ignore
the gospel when those who ignored the law suffered great consequences in their
life? " He's not talking, I believe, about eternal security here. We get caught
up in that argument.

The point is, you're going to suffer great, great consequences in your life if
you drift away from faith. God has some great things He wants to do in your
life, and if I drift away, I'm going to miss out on those. And I have missed out
on some things in my life, and you have, too, because I haven't always obeyed.

I haven't always listened. And the first part, the first place, is humility,
humility enough to say, "God, I'm sorry. " I admit that I've done some things
that have caused me to drift away.

The second thing you do is you realize that God wants you back. You realize He's
not holding you at arm's length. God's love is unconditional.

He still loves you. Your sin has already been paid for on the cross. That's why
Jesus died for you.

God is not holding a grudge against you. You can count on that. Sometimes we
begin to feel like, "Well, I don't feel comfortable around God, so He must not
feel comfortable around me.

" The truth of the matter is, He wants to embrace you in His arms. He wants you
back. And so the third thing you do is you return.

You return to Him immediately, right now. The thought some of us have is, "I've
messed up my life so much, I've gotten so far away, I've drifted for so long, so
far, I could never get back to God. " Because it's been so long, or because our
mind is so confused about it, we begin to think it's some long, complex process
to get back to God.

It is not. No matter how far you've gotten away, it's only one step back to Him.
It's only one step back.

Did you notice in these verses how to make sure that we don't drift? It began by
saying, "Pay more careful attention to what you've heard. " The step back is
getting back to doing what you've heard.

You hold on to the truths that God has given you, and you hold on to the truth
by doing the truth. I will tell you just a tip, one of the keys sometimes to
doing the truth is actually writing it down. There's something about hearing
from God and then writing it down somewhere.

It's a kind of accountability that helps you to begin to live out that truth in
your life. Pay more careful attention to what you've heard. You may have taken
one giant step out of the will of God, or it may have been a long process of one
step away at a time.

If you've been drifting, regardless of how you got there, you can come home
right now. Drifting is gradual, but restoration is immediate. And for you, the
drift may have been just a day.

There's some things that happened in these last few days, these last few weeks.
It may have been months or years. Drifting is gradual, but restoration is
immediate.

And so as we pray today, I'd like to take some time in prayer just for a few
moments to have you consider a few questions, just in your mind in prayer. In
relationship with God, in connection with Him, just ask yourself, was there ever
a time when I was closer to Christ than I am right now? If so, what happened?

Why did I slip away? What got in the way? Was it my career?

Was it a relationship? Was it money? Was it a hobby?

Was it entertainment? Have I gotten close to a deeper commitment to Christ many
times, only to draw back out of fear? Just tell Him those things in prayer and
say, "God, I want to get back to You.

" Has your relationship to Christ gone stale? Are you just going through the
motions? Do you feel like it's all about duty right now instead of the delight
of the Lord?

Or maybe you've stopped caring about the salvation of those around you. You've
stopped sharing positive words about Christ with those who don't know Him and
even those who do know Him. Maybe in some corner of your life you'd see, "I
don't want other people to know.

" Because of maybe how you act or what's going on in your life, "I don't want
them to know about my relationship to Christ. " Or maybe it's you've slacked off
on giving or you're doubting that God will provide for your needs and you just
see that you've lost your joy. All of these are signs of drifting.

If that's true in your life or maybe it's something else, I haven't put my
finger on it but God has, He's put His finger on it in your life, just come to
Him right now and say, "Jesus, I'm coming back. I'm coming back because I know
You want me back and I want to pay more careful attention to what I've heard. I
want to follow You.

I've got a lot to learn, so help me to be around other believers, help me to put
Your Word in my life in a new and fresh way. I don't want this just to be a
single prayer. I want this to be a turning point in my life and so I'm coming
back to You.

And Lord, if I have to pray this prayer every day for the rest of my life, I'm
willing to pray it. I'm coming back to You. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to look together at some wisdom that God has to give us on
the problem of good and evil.