Bibles to think to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1 through 4. For this reason, we must pay 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/or disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

After it was 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 by various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the blessing that we have to be able to call You our Abba Father.

We pray that nothing but Your Word would go forth from this pulpit, that You would ordain Your words, Lord God, that You've put Your very breath in, to have its power over us, as You promised, Lord God, that the Word goes forth and does not return until it has accomplished its purpose.

So I pray that You would open our eyes, our ears, soften our hearts, Lord God, that Your Word would penetrate as we are the potter, You are the potter, we are the clay. Mold us as You desire. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you've been a Christian for any period of time, for a year, two years, ten years, thirty years, you can probably name a few people, if not many people, who at one point in your life, you thought you were going to be running this race together for the rest of your life, and they're no longer here.

Maybe some of them are not just not here, but they're hostile toward the faith. But at the time, whether you were in college or whether you were in your twenties or thirties, they were so passionately for God, and you probably couldn't believe that they drifted away. But again, if you've been a Christian for any period of time, whether it's a year or ten years or your whole life, you probably know at least one person who drifted away and shipwrecked their faith and are no longer walking with God.

I remember when I first became a Christian, I was so excited about my encounter with God. Because I grew up in the church all my life, and if you asked me if I was a Christian, I would have immediately told you, "Of course I'm a Christian." But I didn't know Him.

I didn't have a personal relationship with Him. It was just some figurehead that my dad preached. But when I became a Christian, it was such a radical conversion. Like overnight, I got bopped over the head. It's like, "Oh my gosh, this God that I sang to, memorized Scripture, He's actually real.

And He loves me, and He forgave my sins." So I was so excited. So me and my friend went back home, and I remember we had an opportunity to talk to his older brother, and we shared with him what happened, how we got converted. So we were looking for an opportunity to share our faith, and we were just so excited.

We weren't trying to evangelize. We were just trying to tell him. This is what happened. It's so amazing. And I remember his response to us was, "That's great. I experienced something just like you when I was younger." And obviously, he caught us off guard because he was as pagan as you can get.

If you asked me at that time, "Who is living a sinful life?" That's the guy that I would have first chose. We knew he was doing drugs. We knew he was engaged in all kinds of stuff. But he said, "What you're saying to me, like, 'Yeah, I met the Lord too.'" I said, "How can you have met the Lord?" And he said, "You know, I did, but I know I'm not living like that now, but, you know, that's what happened." And again, at that time, I just couldn't believe it.

How can somebody who experienced the same God that I experienced be living the way he's living? Well, that was 30-some years ago, and I can tell you now, from my own personal experience, not only has he proven to be true of many Christians that I have known, I've come to realize just how difficult it is to remain on this path.

It's very, very easy to drift, and that's exactly what Jesus said. He said that the road that leads to eternal life is narrow and it is difficult, and very few people will be found on it. Not only am I not shocked or surprised anymore of people that used to be, used to be a missionary, used to be a pastor even, were hostile toward the faith.

The Scripture that we're looking at this morning is warning us about drifting. You don't have to denounce who Jesus is to drift, because that would be apostate. People who drift away from God don't wake up one day and say, "You know what? I just don't believe in God." It happens gradually.

That's why he warns about drifting. Most people that I know who have defected from the Christian faith did not defect because of an event. If you ask them, they might tell you that I left the faith because I had an encounter and I didn't like our church or my pastor embezzled money or I didn't like certain people and I was disappointed and people let me down, they're a bunch of hypocrites, they might tell you an event that may have happened.

But most people that I know do not defect from their faith because of an event. I know plenty of people who face all kinds of tragedies, all kinds of disappointment in the church and are thriving in their faith. From my personal observation and experience, the majority of people who defected from the faith, again, it didn't happen because of an event and they were so traumatized and they couldn't get over it.

They were drifting for a long period of time before that happened. And when that happened, that was just the excuse that they used to get out. When we drift, and if you happen to be on a boat, you know, that you're just kind of relaxing, enjoying the sun, and you drifted out for an hour and you're miles and miles away from the shore, you get up and you realize, "Oh man, I shouldn't be here." And you know you need to get back, but there is no sense of fear or danger because there's no storm.

You know you shouldn't be there. You know that you need to work to get back. There's no sudden danger, unless you have drifted and a storm comes in. And when the storm comes in, you are in danger because now if your boat flips, you're going to die. That's the danger that you and I are in.

Because there's no persecution, there is no fire underneath our feet. When we begin to drift, there is no sense of urgency. We know we shouldn't be here. Our hearts have become hardened toward God for many, many years. It's been a long, long time since I've ever sang a song and really felt it in my heart and confessed my love for Jesus, and I really meant it from the bottom of my heart.

We know we shouldn't be here. Scripture warns us, but there is no sense of urgency to get back because the storm hasn't come. And when you're in that state, and one of these days, storm comes, it will flip your boat, and eventually you will use that to leave. That's been my experience.

People that I've found who have defected from their faith, they've been in that state of floating and drifting for a very, very long period of time. That's why there's a sense of urgency in the author of this letter to not to drift. There's five separate warnings in the book of Hebrews, and this is the first of them.

I'm not going to go through the five now. But with every Christology, with every presentation of Jesus as who he is, he's greater than the prophets, he's greater than the angels, he's greater than Moses, he's greater than Aaron, he's greater than the priesthood, he's greater than the sacrifice, and every time he exalts Christ, he ends it and sums it up with a warning.

That after knowing who Jesus is and confessing Jesus, that you slip away, you fall out, you neglect, that there is consequence for it. This is the first of the five. He says, "For this reason, we must pay much closer attention." Again, so when he says, "This reason," he's talking about the Jesus that he's presented in chapter one.

The Jesus that he presented in chapter one begins by saying, "God spoke to us in the new covenant directly through Jesus." So every believer, every genuine Jew, prior to the coming of Christ, they heard through the prophets in many ways in various avenues, but now he speaks primarily directly through his son.

In other words, we're not looking at pictures, we're not looking at shadows, we're not looking at impressions. God spoke to us directly through his son. He made it crystal clear what his intention is, what he was doing in history, and where we are headed. What is the point of saying that?

"Therefore, you must pay very close attention." There is no excuse. He says, "Since Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of God." He didn't just tell us from a distance, "Jesus came." God himself in his glory came and walked among us. He said he is the exact representation of his nature.

In other words, it is not some of God, it is not a reflection of God, but God himself. Not from a distance, he didn't yell at us through the clouds, God himself walked among us. He took on flesh and there's an actual land where his feet touched. He actually ate the food that we ate.

He experienced the pain that we experience, so that he can become a sympathetic high priest. What is the point of saying all of this? "Therefore, since..." Considering all of this, "we must pay close attention." "Since Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power." In other words, God is sovereign.

This God who is speaking to us, he's a sovereign God. He's the one who upholds all things by his hands. We live in his world. We don't have our world and then his world and then we go back and forth. No, all of us are in his world. Even Satan, the Bible says the God of this age is Satan.

But even Satan functions in his world. This God who is absolutely sovereign over all things, our very breath, the reason why we live and move and have our being, he is speaking. In other words, pay attention. I mentioned in the beginning, when E.F. Hutton speaks, everyone listens. Why do they listen?

Because he has good advice. Again, you don't know who E.F. Hutton is now, but he'd be saying like Warren Buffett. When Warren Buffett gives you stock advice, everybody leans over. Why do you lean and listen? Because you want to make money. Because you've been investing in stock. This guy is the best investor in our generation, made billions of dollars just from picking the right stocks at the right time, selling it at the right time.

When he speaks, everybody who has interest in stocks, they lean over and listen. But that's where his knowledge stops. The sovereign God who sustains all things, created all things, everything is made by him and for him, when he speaks, and if you want life, in other words, he's saying, considering all this, you must pay close attention.

Not only is he all of this, he says, since Jesus made the purification for sins and sits at the right hand of the Father. Think about all the people that we look up to and idolize in this world. Movie stars, athletes, maybe great business people, billionaires, people that we look at and maybe covet in the secular world.

Whatever it may be, we look up to them. People look up to them, idolize them, want to imitate them for what reason? Because they have something we want. It could be an ability, it could be money, it could be their hope, whatever it may be, it could be their looks.

But the people that the world worships, they do it for their own glory. They do it to get their own attention. They haven't done anything for you. And yet the world is willing to spend tons of money just to get closer to them, and yet when we talk about the God of the universe who is completely sovereign, that he stepped off of his throne and he made purification for sins.

Who sins? Your sin and my sin. And yet we still struggle with our priorities between the world and him. In other words, for this reason, you must pay close attention. If the Jesus that we worship, that we sing about, if this is the Jesus that we sing and worship, shouldn't we lean toward what he has to say?

All of this is an introduction of what he is going to say. If this is the Jesus that we worship, that his name is above all the other names, that he is above the angels in his nature, because he is the creator, he is the one who opposes the universe, not the angels.

He is the one who rules and he is sovereign. He is righteous and he is ultimately immutable. He does not change from generation to generation. If this is the Jesus that you and I believe in, it is only common sense that the response to that, that we would lean toward and listen to him.

And that's what he's been getting at. The whole point of what he's been getting at in chapter 1 is to lead us to chapter 2 to say, "Pay attention!" If you're a school teacher and your children are running around and you have a lesson to give, he's like... (claps) Or I've seen this happening, or you say, "Click, click," and everybody has to say, "Click, click." And you have all kinds of tricks to get their attention.

I've seen some veteran teachers who are really good at that. They would say something and then, boom, everybody gets their attention. That's exactly what he's trying to do. He's trying to get these Jewish Christians who've been drifting away from their faith, and he's trying to get their attention. Did you forget who Jesus is?

Did you forget who you're worshipping? He created you! The very breath that you breathe, he gave it to you. You're here because of him. He died for your sins! Stop being distracted by the world. Now pay, pay, pay, pay attention. That's basically what he's saying. He gets us to chapter 2, "For this reason, you must pay much closer attention." It is threefold in redundancy.

It's almost like, "You must, must, must pay attention." Now, whenever the Bible repeats it three times, what does that mean? For the purpose of emphasis. They don't have highlighters, and they don't have clip art to separate. They don't have computers, so the way they highlight it was they repeat it.

So when Jesus has something to say to Peter, he said, "Peter," when he has something to say to Peter and he really needed to pay attention, what does he say? "Simon, Simon." In other words, this is really important. Everything I say is important, but this is really important. He says, "For this reason, you must pay much closer attention." For this reason.

Pay attention. The word "pay attention," the word in and of itself is a nautical term. It means to get your ship to be deliberately on the right path. Not just to lean and listen, but to actively make sure that it's going toward the right path. Now, today, and I don't know if you guys are into sailing.

Obviously, I'm not. But I had a friend who was really like an avid fisherman. So he had his own boat. And so a while back, he took me out on the boat, and he was showing me how to fish and doing all this stuff. And there's all kinds of technology now, so that you can catch more fish.

And I didn't even realize that there's like a sonar system that almost every boat has, and if you turn it on, it tells you where the fish are. Yeah, it sounds like cheating, right? You're not a fisherman. Anyway, he's been fishing for a long time. So he took me on the boat, and then he was fishing.

And then, if you have a hard time, they can actually radio each other and say, "Hey, they're friends. "Hey, who's out there on the boat? "Hey, where's the fish at?" And they will tell each other. And then when you get there, you turn on the sonar, and it shows you where all the fish are.

And then you throw it down, and then you put it-- "That's too easy." But now we've got all kinds of technology. But a long time ago, before all this technology came, there's a reason why there was a lighthouse at the shore. Because in the dark of the night, and the storm comes in, and you don't see, you could work hard, and you're going toward the right direction.

But if you don't see the lighthouse, you could have rowed, sailed, worked hard all night, and moved further away from the shore. He's saying, "Pay attention to stay on this path, "because if you do not stay on this path, "you're going to drift." You know, there's nothing more frustrating than a couple who's working really hard and are not meeting each other.

When you have a couple where one person clearly is in the wrong, and they're not making any effort, at least you know what the problem is. At least you know what the problem is. But a lot of times the frustration comes when two people are working really hard, and it's not going anywhere.

And you just sit down with an older couple to figure out what's going on. Is the guy dense? He doesn't speak the woman language? And the other way. And so it's helpful to get advice from other people when it's actually going toward the right direction. Sometimes if we're not careful, we can put all our efforts, work hard to serve the church, sacrifice and give, and yet be headed down the wrong direction.

Again, if you've been a Christian for any given number of years, you know what I'm talking about. Some of the people who are the most bitter about church are the ones who've given the most to the church and just absolutely became bitter and angry at the end. He says pay attention.

Pay attention very closely so that you do not drift. What does he mean to pay attention? You know, there's another church in Revelation, Church of Ephesus. On the surface was working very hard. They had right doctrine, they were testing to see if these apostles were true. And so everything that a good church should have on the surface, this Church of Ephesus has.

And yet Jesus says in chapter 2, verse 4, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove the lampstand out of its place, unless you repent." You know, when we talk about a dried heart, when we talk about dried heart or complacent heart, we don't look at that as something urgent.

We know it's wrong. Just like you're on a boat and you drifted out for an hour and you know you don't belong there, but there's no sense of urgency to deal with that. Because it's not like you're sinning. It's not like you're going and doing something, you're not doing drugs, you're not hurting anybody.

It's just your heart has become callous and you know it's become callous. And the Word of God is not penetrating into your heart like it used to. But there's no sense of urgency to do anything about it because you don't see any storm, you don't see any consequence. But look what Jesus says, "If you do not restore your first love, I will remove your lampstand." What is the lampstand?

It's the church. In other words, God is going to withdraw His Spirit from a church that does not love Him first. You can do the work. You can have a growing congregation. You can feed the poor. You can do all the things that a good biblical church does on the outside, but if there is no real worship going on in our hearts.

He said, "I will remove my lampstand." In other words, that church is no longer relevant because God is not being worshipped there. The consequence of drifting and allowing a callous heart isn't simply feeling bad. There's dire consequences. Some of you who are sitting in here have drifted for so long that you don't even remember what it was like to be passionate for Christ.

It's just a memory from the past when you were younger. I was like that. And you live the rest of your life always pointing back to when you were in your teens or in your twenties, and sometime in college, "I used to be like that." And you become so cynical that anybody else catches on fire, you say, "I used to be like that." Let's see what happens to you when this happens and that happens.

He says to remember. Remember. Remember what? To pay very close attention. It's the same thing that he's saying in Hebrews chapter 2. Pay close attention to what you have heard. To give yourself and remind yourself to remember who Christ is. You know in the church sometimes, you know who are the most mature people in the church sometimes?

Are the brand new Christians. And the reason why is because a mature Christian is not somebody who knows everything and experienced everything. That doesn't make you mature. A mature Christian is the one who is the nearest to Christ. If the greatest thing that God desires from us is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, the one who is the nearest to Christ, whose affection is the deepest to Christ, he's the mature Christian because he hears Christ.

Sometimes it is the ones who are being baptized for the first time. They are the ones who are the nearest to Christ. When he says to remember, he says to remember when you first met Christ, the very reason why you decided to come to church in the first place, why you joined small group, why you gave your life to Christ and repented and came to him.

Remember the height from which you had fallen. He's not talking about, remember those days when you used to lead all these Bible studies? Remember how many people that used to share the gospel? Remember when you used to memorize scripture? All of these things are great things, but that's not what he's pointing to because this church was already doing that.

This church was already doing all the necessary things that a good Christian is supposed to do, but their indictment isn't that they weren't doing this. He says, "No, you have forsaken your first love. Your heart has drifted so far from me. You have forgotten who I am. Remember the height from which you had fallen." And then he says to repent.

It is not enough to remember where we were at. If that's all that remains, so many of us, we just remember back then, hoping that our circumstances, something would happen in our life to kind of get us to go over there, and we live the rest of our lives like that.

And we admire young Christians who are on fire for God, but it's never us. And somehow we have resolved that a passion for Jesus Christ is for the youth, not for older people, not for people who've been walking and have children, raised kids, and have just experienced the reality of living in this sinful world.

That's not for us. That's for youth. And we don't even equate that with the Holy Spirit anymore. We just equate that with youth. Young people do that. It is not enough for us to remember. He calls us to repent and return. That it's not okay just to be floating around, knowing full well we are so far from where we ought to be.

He says to repent, and then he says to redo. Now you look at that and say, "Well, redo? Redo what? They're doing all this stuff." There is a world of difference between somebody who is working hard with a heart that has drifted away from God versus somebody who is working hard because they remember, because they repent, and that causes them to do.

And if it is not in that order, we become Pharisees. That's what makes a church an ugly place to be. A church who is working so hard to become A+ students in the kingdom. It becomes either an ugly place of people who are examining other people's lives to make sure that everybody is doing what they're supposed to do versus a church who has been impacted by the love of Christ.

And it is an overflow because he first loved me, I love. So I am doing all of these things because I've been impacted by what I remember of what he has done. It is a world of difference. So when he says to remember, repent, and redo, he's calling us back to our first love.

Let me give you some practical things that you can focus on. When your heart has drifted, our natural inclination is to blame our circumstance. I don't have enough leaders, I don't have peers, I don't have this, and I don't have that. Before you blame your drifting to your circumstance, if you're not regularly in the word of God, if you're not regularly allowing the word of God to judge the thoughts and intentions of your heart, start there.

It's been my experience that if you're not regularly in taking the word of God on a daily basis, and all of a sudden you do that on a daily basis, you will be surprised just how quickly your paradigm changes about God and others. Just by simply doing that. Just regularly coming to the word of God.

Not weekly, not during Bible study, but regularly every single day discipline yourself to be in front of the word of God and allowing it to judge the thoughts and intentions of your heart. If you're not praying, commit yourself to prayer. And I'm not saying, like some of you who don't normally pray to pray even 15 minutes, you know, it's intimidating.

You know, how long does it take for your mind to wander? Especially this generation. Right? You can't even go to a coffee shop without music blasting in your ears. You know? The benefit of, you know, growing up in the 70s and 80s, at a certain time, the TV went off.

And so if you're a night owl, you just sat in the dark. There was nothing to do. You know, restaurants didn't open past 9, 10 o'clock. Dinner was served, you're done. You don't wake up at 3 in the morning and say, "Let's go to L.A." To do what? Only drug addicts go to L.A.

at 3 a.m. What do you do at 3 a.m. in L.A.? Now, I mean, you're so distracted all the time with the phone, the internet, you know, there's not even a second to sit and contemplate and think. So to be in that state and all of a sudden to pray quietly for 15 minutes is intimidating.

But that's why it says to pray at all times in all circumstances. If you're not in the habit of praying, just pray. Is it okay to pray in the car? Yes. Is it okay to pray before you eat? Yes. What about after you eat? Yes. When you meet people?

Yes. In the morning? Yes. At night? Yes. Middle of the night? Yes. While you're talking to people? Yes. If that causes you to love Christ more, that's more important than your friendship. Get in the habit of praying, even if it's just a little bit, because that will help you to pray.

At some point, that will cause you to be a prayer warrior. A prayer warrior doesn't wake up and start praying 10 hours a day, 2 hours a day. Just like if you're working out, you don't go in there and look at these guys who are lifting 300 pounds, and you look at that and say, "Oh, I can't do that," and you walk out of the gym.

You go in there and say, "50 pounds is all you can lift." Lift that. That's where you need to start. If you read the Bible and you don't understand, just one verse. Start wherever you are. I know so many guys who used to lift 300 pounds, and they haven't lifted in like 10 years, and they realize, like, "Man, I better go and work out," and they go work out, and they remember 300 pounds, like, "I should at least be able to do 250," and they put two plates on, and they can't even do two plates.

They take the two plates off, and they can't even do what's on there, and they realize, like, they're barely lifting 130 pounds. But they remember they used to do 300, and so they're so discouraged they never go back to the gym. There's a lot of people who remember what they were like when they were in college, and they see how far that they've drifted, and then they think, "Well, I should be here because I used to be here.

I used to want to be a missionary. I used to memorize Scripture. I used to do all of this, and we've drifted so far, and we can't meet that anymore," and so that discouragement causes us to not do it at all. Start where you are. Remember the height from which you had fallen.

Repent and redo what you did at first. You didn't start with 300 pounds. You just started. Take baby steps. Take baby steps again. Get back on track. Don't accept your drifting. Don't accept your callousness. Don't accept that as an acceptable place to be. It's predictable. He says, "If you accept that," he says, "if you don't pay attention, you will drift." The word "drift" basically means to slip away.

You know the person who is the most danger, is the one who is drifting, and he doesn't even know it. Again, that's the danger of the church because sermon is preached. You'll attend every Sunday. The doors aren't going to be locked. People will be here. There are counselors. There are small groups.

There are activities, and then if you want to be generous, there are avenues to give. If you feel motivated, there are short-term missions. If you want to serve, there are all kinds of ways to serve in the church, and so we have all kinds of things that are available for Christians to do, but you know how easy it is that in the midst of all of this, your heart is calmed.

Drifting is dangerous if you understand the context of this drifting. You know, when I was back in college, my parents owned a dry cleaner store, and so, you know, Philip was too young. My older brother was heavily into college, so I was the one available. So I would take classes in the morning, and then I was at Biola, and then by 11 o'clock, I'd get in my car, and I'd have to get to Burbank.

So from La Mirada to Burbank, I drove from, you know, every Monday through Friday, and then sometimes on Saturday. And so sometimes, you know, I was a full-time student, and so sometimes there would be, you know, finals and papers that I needed to do, and so I was tired.

I didn't get much sleep. So 11 o'clock, I would go, and almost every time I fell asleep, I fell asleep in the same place. You know, like, I'm-- like, anything that I drive more than 30 minutes, I'm a narcoleptic, you know, sleeper. I just pass out. Esther knows, so she-- my whole family won't let me drive if we drive long distance, right?

For their own safety. So I would always fall asleep in the same place. I would drive from La Mirada, and then I'd get past, you know, where the 5 and 10 meet, and then right around the place where we meet number 2, Glendale. So it was like right before I get to Burbank, that's when I start falling asleep.

You know, and so usually I would fight it, 'cause I'm almost there, you know, and my mom needs me to go and help. So I would fight it, and I made it. But there was a couple times when I just straight up just fell asleep. So I was on it, and then there was a-- you know, I was about to get to Burbank, and then I just-- I lost the battle.

I was trying to stay awake, and then the car started drifting. And then if you-- if you know that area, you know, like, if you start drifting, it kind of goes, and there's an area where it just falls off. It's not a vertical drop, but it's a drop enough for about 2 stories.

So the car started drifting, and of course I fell asleep, but I didn't know it, and my front wheel hit the-- what do you call it? The water thing. Rain gutter. Right. I was born in Korea. In the rain gutter. So my hit--my car hit that, and I got jolted awake, and just instinctively I turned it, and I turned to the left, right?

So obviously it shocked me. I said, "Oh, my gosh, if the car didn't hit that, like, I would have just-- just went off of there," right? And I--again, I don't remember if seatbelt was required back then. Do you remember? Is that where-- this was 1987, '86, '87. It wasn't required.

If it wasn't required, I didn't do it, and I'm pretty sure-- Even if it was required, there's 50/50 chance I didn't do it. So, you know, that freaked me out, and then that happened again. The almost exact same thing happened. I fell asleep. So after that, now if I feel fatigue or if I look--feel like I'm falling asleep, I don't fight it, because if I don't win, it could be fatal.

And I've seen people, and I know some of you guys who've worked on the road, you know, you got firemen and policemen and CHP officers, and you know, you've seen it, so many people who just fell asleep. They weren't drunk. You know, this is before texting and all of this stuff.

They just were tired and fell asleep, and they lost their life. When we talk about drifting, we're not talking about cars. We're not talking about Tokyo Drift. The consequence for drifting spiritually, he says, you will shipwreck your faith. You may wake up one day and realize, how did I get here?

But the danger is, you can be in that church. You can be in the church, serving, maybe even leading, and be in that state. The consequence of drifting. And that's why he says, you must pay very close attention so that we do not drift. We can drift simply by procrastinating.

There's something that God has convicted you of, but not today. And that whole time you're drifting. You can drift from small compromises. You don't have to say, you know what, I don't love God, I'm just going to do whatever I want. It's just small compromises. You've accepted a hardness of your heart to be the normal state of your life.

Why? Because I'm busy. I have children. I have a job. You don't know my pressure. And so these small compromises have caused you to drift. Success. Success can cause you to drift. Because you begin to think that you did it. And you become proud. And you're not desperately clinging on to God.

Failure can cause you to drift. How come God allowed this to happen? Why is He so unfair? Why isn't He doing this to me? Status quo of doing nothing. Sometimes that's the greatest danger. We just kind of be lulled to sleep. That's exactly what God says about the nation of Israel.

When they were hungry, God fed them. And then when they were fed, they were satisfied, and then they forgot God. That's the danger that many of us are in. Just to add a quote. There hasn't been anything urgent in our lives for a while. Working hard can cause us to drift when we work hard toward the wrong direction.

Not working hard causes us to atrophy and to be rusted out. Sometimes starting hard in theology causes us to give us a big head, and all we produce are a bunch of Pharisees. Sometimes even loving people for the wrong reason, expecting love back, and then when they don't love us back, we become bitter and angry, and we begin to drift.

It's not that hard to drift. All you have to do is to not pay attention. That's why he says, "How can we escape if we neglect, neglect such a great salvation?" You know what you need to do to neglect? Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing for you to do. You're not going somewhere.

You're not doing something. You just sit there and do nothing, and you drift. How can we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? There is a serious consequence if we drift, Hebrews 2, 2-3. "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?" In other words, if we do not fix our eyes upon Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, and we allow ourselves to drift away from Christ, all that remains is the judgment.

Everything that he said in the Old Testament, it is not subjective. It did not change because of time. It did not change because of circumstance. It's that all that God spoke through the angels are unalterable. It still stands. If the grace of God, if we do not cling to the grace of God, all we are are men and women who are under the law and the wrath of God still remains.

And every word, every transgression will receive just penalty and it will be no different. We will not be judged by a different scale if we neglect such a great salvation. If we do not cling to Christ, the whole world will be under this judgment. That's why he says in Hebrews 6, 4-6, "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they are again crucified to themselves, the son of God, and put into open shame." In other words, if you had access to the only way to God and you just simply drifted away from him, there is no other forgiveness.

There is no other path. There is no other way. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me." So if we neglect Christ, we drift away and we simply fall from that and we are under condemnation, like the old covenant.

Remember, repent, and redo. And let me summarize this morning. Now, as I was preparing this message, if there is one thing that I have been wrestling and struggling with as a pastor for 30 years is this. The challenge of ministry here in the United States, in Orange County, California, it isn't Taliban, it isn't persecution, it isn't financial.

It's just constantly drifting. It's constantly drifting. Revival comes for a minute. Next time you turn, we're nibbling on something else. And as soon as God hammers us and revival breaks out, soon after, we're nibbling on something else. Our churches are filled with people who have become fatigued with fighting, and you've just accepted this is life.

If you allow yourself to be just taken by the current, your life will be so predictable. Because I've seen it. I've been doing ministry with a certain age bracket since I was 19. You know, you students, the most excitement that happens if you're in college is September. Because September is everything new.

Nobody's failed classes yet. So September is brand new. You don't have papers that you procrastinated for three months and you're cramming. It's like September is exciting. You're all A students in September. That's where all the activity happens, this energy. So it's easy. Freshmen are coming in, and they're excited to start their new life.

So any activity has the greatest attendance in September. Christmas comes around, you get distracted. And then you go on winter break, you know, you feel, "Oh, comfortable." Like you deserve your rest. Because you work so hard. And then the new semester starts, or new quarter starts, you don't have the same kind of energy in September.

Some of you failed your classes. Some of you have already fallen behind. And so there's fatigue that comes in. But you still have energy that you started in September. And by February, March comes around, it hits you. Because you've got to make up for what you did. And so the hardest time to keep the college students focused is between March and June.

Between March and June, you kind of drift out. So if you haven't put in your time and your energy, and you have stuff to do, you're just cramming. This is when people are irritable. If you're dating, that's when the fighting happens. Right? Is it March yet? Yeah, it's March.

So we're entering that season. Stay sober. And you know, you get into college, and by the time you're a senior in college, you're kind of coasting along. Yeah, I screwed up in freshman year, but I got next year. I'm only a little bit behind. But by the time you're a senior, you're taking 35 units just to graduate.

Because you feel behind. Maybe I'm exaggerating. 22 units. Right? There's nothing new under the sun. You're so eager. But that's the current. You graduate, and you're praying for a job, and you get a job, and you're excited. But that period, when you graduate from 22 to 24, is when it's the most dangerous.

Because it's not as easy. You're not with Christians all the time. And all of a sudden, you're working 9 to 5, and that excitement of having money and freedom, all of a sudden has become a burden. And you begin to ask yourself, "Is this it?" Because there is no next stage.

Once you get that job, you're in that job for life. And then you die. Or retire and then die. And then that despair comes in. Like, "Is this it?" That excitement when you were young, you've already tasted some of it. And it's like, "Is this it? Is this the grind?" And so, statistically, something over 80% of people drift away during this period.

If you're just going with the current, it's like, "Oh, where's my husband? Where's my wife?" And you pray, and you start dating. It's like, "Oh, thank you, Lord. You're so good to me." Then you start dating, and things are good, and you start struggling with purity, and you start having conflicts.

Some of it works, some of it doesn't work. And then I've never seen somebody dating and come out of it on fire for God. Because it's a struggle. And so that's where the current takes you. And if things work out, you get married. You go on a honeymoon period.

We're going to serve the Lord Jesus with all our might. We're going to do missions together. We're going to serve the orphans together. And then you realize you married a sinner. You're serving orphans. I'm having a hard time serving her. And that's the current. And then you struggle. And then you drift.

And then you pray for a child. For some people it's harder, and some people can't stop. But you have a child. And then when you have a child, it's like, "Oh, thank God we have a child. We love this child." Terrible twos, terrible ones, terrible three, terrible 15. The terrible comes in.

And then you realize you didn't give birth to an angel. You gave birth to another sinner. And then you have four sinners coming into your home. And then all of a sudden, you say, "Wow, this is hard. This is really hard." And the current will cause you to drift.

If you are not anchored in Christ, that's where you're headed. No human being is different. I've seen this cycle over and over and over and over and over. There's nothing new under the sun. And that's why he keeps saying, "Pay attention. Pay attention. All you have to do is do nothing.

Let life just take you down its current, and you will find yourself one day waking up far, far, far away from Christ." And that's why it's so important. Is this the Jesus that you believe? Then fix your eyes upon Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith. That's perfect.