Lest We Drift Away

Intro

There was once an old sailor who often times found himself lost at sea, because of this his friends decided to give him a compass and urged him to use it. The next time the old sailor went out he listened to his friends and took the compass with him. However, as usually he became hopelessly confused and was unable to find land.

Finally he was rescued by his friends. They were upset and quite impatient with him, and they asked him, "Why didn’t you use that compass we gave you? You could have saved us a lot of trouble!" The sailor responded, "I didn’t dare to! I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast."

You see the sailor in this story was so certain of what he was doing that he attempted to force is personal persuasion on his compass, and when the compass didn’t agree with him he tossed it aside and remained adrift at sea.

Being adrift can be a dangerous thing and many don’t survive being lost at sea. However something as simple as a compass or even being able to read the starts can guide a man home.

Today in this world there are many who are adrift, and it’s easy, even for us to go adrift. and so we read this warning in Hebrews 2:1

Hebrews 2:1 ESV

1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Now in context this passage isn’t talking about avoiding false teaching but holding true to what we have been taught, let’s read Hebrews 1:1-4

Hebrews 1:1–4 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Discerning the Drift

Now we have all experienced what it’s like to drift away, and so the question becomes how do we prevent ourselves from drifting away?

Well in order to answer that we must discern how it is that we are drifting away.

Mental Laziness

There are somethings that we are simply too lazy to do and therefore we begin to drift away. So write this down; We drift if we become Mentally Lazy.

Prayer

Let me ask you what is your prayer life like? Do you spend dedicated time in prayer everyday. If you have a friend and you go a long period of time without talking to them do you become closer to that friend or do you become distant?

The same thing applies to God when we don’t talk to God we distance ourselves from Him, and we drift away. and why don’t we pray? There may be a few reason that someone may give but it comes down to mental laziness.

Quiet Time

Something else we can become to mentally lazy to do is our quiet time. Reading scripture is essential to the Christian life, it teaches us the Lord’s commands it encourages us and feeds us, it reveals God to us, it instructs us in life as the compass guides the sailor. Let’s read Psalm 1:2

Psalm 1:2 ESV

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

And so when we are not feeding ourselves we begin to starve, and when a person is starving he is willing to eat anything, likewise if a man disregards his compass he sails adrift and he will sail in any direction in hopes of getting home, will he not?

Faithful to Church

another way we show mental laziness, is our faithfulness to church. and what I mean by that is many people are simply to lazy to go to church. and so they receive no fellowship, no accountability, and no congregational worship.

Now why is it so important that we go to church, I’ve heard many say that they can get the same thing at home on their T.V. in their pajamas that they can getting up and going to church. Now I’m assuming that the people who are here today realize the importance of being at church and being in fellowship with one another, so maybe this is more for the people who are watching this online later.

It’s impossible to experience and partake in the body of Christ without being in fellowship with other believers and the best way to do that is to be in church.

So those are 3 ways that we tend to be mentally lazy, in case you didn’t get them all written down we can become too lazy;

To Pray

To Read Scripture

and To God To Church

However those aren’t the only things that can cause us to go adrift.

Busyness

It is said,

If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.

Busyness can cause us to go adrift, when we are busy suddenly we lose time for God. suddenly we stop thinking about God. Psalm 46:10 says,

Psalm 46:10 (ESV)

10 “Be still, and know that I am God.

Let me ask you have you ever had a really busy week or even a really busy day, and you tend to forget some of the things that are on your to do-list? I do that all the time, In fact if I have a busy day I have to write everything down or else I’ll forget what I had to do, and furthermore, I have to pick and choose the things I have time for.

And so when we are busy we tend to forget to take time to grow towards God. John Wesley once said,

300 Quotations for Preachers Always in Haste, but Never in a Hurry

Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry; because I never undertake any more work than I can go through with perfect calmness of spirit.

Worldliness

That’s important isn’t it, that we remain in perfect calmness of the spirit, it truly helps us when we are living in this world. after all Worldliness causes us to go adrift. Now this one is clean cut, let’s read 1 John 2:15-17

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

So when we live according to the World, or if we love the world, we give into the desires of the flesh or the desires of the eyes or the pride of life, and those things aren’t of God. and so if we abide in the world we are going to pass away with the world, but if we abide in God then we will live forever.

So this is the picture I want you to have in your mind… Imagine a line, now this line can only go up or down, and so if it moves up you are moving towards God and if moves down you are moving towards the world. and can never go straight, it’s either towards God or towards the world.

and so we have to make the choice to get back on track. We certainly don’t want to perish with the world so we need to move towards God!

And many people, especially our youth, are being tricked into following celebrities and other influencers, who are adrift. And when you follow someone who is adrift regardless of how well you know your compass you will be adrift with the person you follow.

So what pulls us away from God? Mental Laziness, Busyness, and Worldliness.

And now maybe you realize that you are on the downward slant heading away from God and you want to get back on track and stop drifting away.

Stop The Drift

So how do we stop drifting away? Well the first step and the very first thing you need to do, to get back on track, is to pray!

Pray

Prayer is our way of directly communicating with the Lord and so it is the first step to coming back to God. However, I have told this to people and they think that their slant is so steep and that they are moving away from God so fast that nothing can pull them back up.

So the question I’m often asked is what should I be praying for?

For Eyes to See

The first thing that we can pray for are that we would have “eyes that see” When we read through the gospels we see one phrase appear multiple times, “come and see” and most times when you hear this phrase it is referring to coming to see the Glory of Jesus Christ.

You see when we pray to see, we are asking that God would reveal himself to us, that we might see his good works Psalm 111:2-3,6-7

Psalm 111:2–3 ESV

2 Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. 3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.

Psalm 111:6–7 ESV

6 He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations. 7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy;

When we begin to see God’s work it redirects us, Let’s take this back to our ship analogy, when we are sailing aimlessly what happens when we see our destination in the distance, we begin to sail towards it.

For Ears To Hear

Now praying for eyes to see is a wonderful first start, however, we will also need to pray for Ears that Hear. It’s one thing when we see God, when we observe his creation all around us or the grace and mercy he showers on our life. however we must hear his commands and the direction we need to go.

When we hear God’s word, it tells us what to do with what he reveals to us. Who here has ever taught? when you teach the most effective way of doing things is to show them and explain to them, when we see something and hear it we take it in in it’s entirety.

For a Heart To Respond

However there’s one more thing we need to pray for, and that is a heart that responds. Witnessing God’s presence and hearing his commands is only any good if we respond to them. again teachers have you ever had a student that you showed them how to do it and explained how and yet the student refused.

I had a conversation with a guy who believed in God he knew he Existed, he had eyes that saw, and he knew Gods word and could hear God’s instruction, However he didn’t have a heart to respond, he felt that he was too far from God to be able to come back to him and so he chose to drift away.

You see your compass is only useful when you are willing to sail in the direction it tells you to.

Read Your Bible

Now prayer is essential but we need to make sure that we are in the Word of God. When we read our bibles it stops the drift, have you ever noticed that? Has anyone experienced a moment in their quiet time when it truly felt like you were in the presence of God?

The Bible is an amazing thing that reveals His truth and instruction to us. The word of God is compared to food in scripture Ezek 3:3

Ezekiel 3:3 ESV

3 And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

When we aren’t’ partaking in the word of God we are starving ourselves, and some people expect to be fed for a whole week by coming to church on Sunday. Let me ask who want to start doing weekly fast where we feast on Sunday and don’t eat any other day of the week.

We must feed ourselves that will stop this drifting away and put us back on the right track.

Yield to the Holy Spirit

And I’ll close with this last point, the final thing to do to stop going adrift, is to yield to the Holy Spirit. When we feel the Holy Spirit guiding us, it’s not guiding us away from God it’s guiding us towards him.

And so every time we feel the spirit put something on our conscience and we reject it, we are choosing to move away from God. Let’s trust in the spirit and follow the spirit and it will guide us to eternity.

Conclusion

It’s not always easy to recognize when we are drifting away from God. Which is why it’s so important that we remain vigilant that we realize quickly when we begin to drift away. Some people don’t realize they’re drifting away until they find themselves completely lost, and many of those people are content with staying lost.

But I promise you that if you follow the spirit if you see and hear God, he will guide you home, he will bring you into eternity and you will see things and experience things that are so amazing that we can’t even fathom it. That certainly sounds better than the alternative doesn’t it.

And shouldn’t it be our desire to use our compass to show others the way. If you see someone drifting away without a compass why wouldn’t we help redirect them, maybe give them a compass, buy them a bible give them one that’s been collecting dust, anything that might correct their path.

Maybe today you are sitting their and realize that you have been drifting away, and you want to correct that, or maybe you’ve never experienced what it was like to move towards God in the first place and you want to take the firs steps to creating a relationship with him.

I’m going to test you here, what’s the first steps to stop the drift?

Prayer. and so I invite you to come up and pray with an elder during this last song, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing it then please reach out to one of us at the end of service and we will pray with you we will help you get back on track.

Let’s pray.