In Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1 through 4, our main focus is going to be the second part, verse 3 to 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 disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

For 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 by various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will. Let me just jump right into the message this morning.

You know in every person's life we can divide our lives into four different compartments. If you've done marriage counseling with me at any point, I think not 100% but a lot of you, I kind of went through this about time management, and there's four different compartments of our lives.

First is the important and urgent things. These are things like finals, your jobs, deadlines, bills. These are things that if you don't take care of, there's immediate consequences. So our tendency is if you're not good at taking care of the important and urgent things, it's going to show immediately.

You're going to lose your job, you're going to fail your class, you're not going to be able to pay your bills, and etc., etc. So our tendency is because it's urgent and because it's important, this is where we give all of our attention. So if you're poor at doing this part, if you're not responsible in the urgent and important things, I'm pretty sure that you feel like your life is out of chaos, like it's completely out of order.

So you naturally tend to pay a lot of attention to this area. The second part of our life is urgent but not important. We're urgent because we made it important. An example of that would be maybe football. It's urgent because you volunteered, you're part of the team. Maybe you were playing an important part.

But it's not important in the scheme of life. Because you didn't win this football tournament, you're going to regret it when you're 60 years old. It's like, we should have won. We should have put more effort into this. So it's urgent because we made it important, because we volunteered.

So it could be football, vacation plans, anything that you decided to do and you volunteered to do, so as a result, you need to be responsible. These are urgent but not important. And then the third category are not important and not urgent. These are what we call time wasters.

Not necessarily sinful. These are movies you watch or video games. Whatever it is, you're not responsible, you just enjoy doing it. So after a long day of work, you just kind of come home and unwind. So maybe you watch a lot of sports, maybe you watch a lot of YouTube videos, whatever it may be, it's not important, it's not urgent.

Again, like I said, if you do too much of this, it will encroach upon other areas of your life. So our natural tendency in these three categories, we pay attention to the first, but if you pay too much attention to the second and third, you begin to have issues in your life.

But the area that we would consider the most important fall into the fourth category. Fourth category is important but not urgent. What would fall into this category is typically God, church, family, health. These are things that if you ask an average person, in particular a Christian, name the things that are the most important in your life.

If you're a Christian, your first answer automatically is God. My relationship with God is the most important thing in my life. And then you would say maybe church or family, and then maybe health, maybe my friends, whatever order you may be. But almost everybody, every Christian will say God.

But this area, it's important. In fact, it's not just important, it's the most important thing. Yet it is not urgent, because there is no deadline. There's nothing that requires you to do it by a certain time. So what ends up happening is, if we fill our calendar with all these other things, important but not urgent, or not urgent and not important, that you start to run out of time to do what is important but not urgent.

This is the area of our life, by the time you retire and look back in your 20s and 30s and 40s, this is the area of your life when you look back and say, "I should have spent more time with my kids. I should have taken care of my health better.

I should have invested better. I should have done this in my faith." These are the things where you wish you had your 20s and 30s and 40s back to do over, because you neglected it. Strange thing is, the things that we say are the most important in our life is the area that we tend to most neglect.

Jim Elliot, if you remember, Jim Elliot was a man who died in the mission field trying to share the gospel with a remote Indian tribe in Ecuador. Many of you know who he is, and his famous quote in his journal, he says, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." I know many of you have probably heard that phrase before, that quote before, but it fits in right in with what the author of Hebrews has been saying.

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep. These temporary things, these urgent but not important things, not important, not urgent things, who gives up these things in order for him to pursue what is important, but what may not seem urgent at the time. In fact, he has another quote.

This is not as famous, but in that same journal, just a few months before he actually goes to Ecuador and dies, he writes in his journal, "I seek not a long life, but a full one like you, Lord." And he wrote this in one of his devotionals, and again, it's not a well-quoted one, but it captures his heart and the way he lived.

He was a man who fully understood what was most important in his life, and he was willing to give his life to share this gospel, whether he lives a long life or a short life. That's exactly what Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, 19. He looks at his life, he says, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all so that I may win more." Apostle Paul says that because of what Christ has done, he's the one who argues in Colossians, in Galatians.

He's the one who argues, not to be caught up in saying, "I'm going to do this or not do this," because in and of itself has no power. He is free. Our salvation is not based upon our works, but the grace of God. He's the one who teaches us that.

He's the one who's fighting legalism. And yet he says, "Though I am free, I make myself a slave that I may, by all means, save some." He knew what was important in his life, and he knows it wasn't much of a choice for him to give up what he could not keep in order for him to share the gospel and bring people to Christ.

Again, in 1 Corinthians 9, 22, "To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that I may, by all means, save some." If we're not careful, we can get into this constant argument of what is and isn't allowed in the Bible.

What is gray area and what is not gray area? And in the context of arguing that, our motivation at times is, "Well, God set me free, so don't put any restrictions on me." See, that argument in and of itself is based upon a wrong desire. He's saying in Hebrews, "Considering what we profess, considering the songs that we sing, considering the gospel that we know that has come to us, how will we escape if our response to that is simply, 'I believe,' and that's it?" See, these areas, other areas of our life that we tend to drift and neglect, that's what he's trying to prevent us from.

That we don't live the rest of our lives and look back and say, "You know what? I wish I watched more movies when I was younger. I really regret that. You know, I wish that I spent more time doing this or that." But to live consistently with the things that we profess, that we do not simply drift, we do not simply neglect.

He says, "How will we escape this if we do this?" Well, it's understandable if non-Christians do that. In 1 Corinthians 1:18, it says, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." So to those who are perishing, who have not seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so they don't believe.

So the message of the cross is foolishness. It's dumb. How can you people possibly believe this? That there's a heaven and hell? How can you possibly believe that a human being died and came back to life? So if you're a non-believer and you believe that the cross is foolishness, then it's understandable that they neglect it.

It's understandable that they don't pay attention, that they just move away from it. So once a year, they might come to church. They might come to events if a good Christian friend invites them to come. But that's about it. But he says, "But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God." So it doesn't make sense for someone professing the gospel to be true and to simply neglect it and respond no different than an unbeliever.

He responds, "Well, I believe that." And the only difference is you profess to believe it versus somebody who profess to reject it. See, people who neglect and drift away from their faith, they don't drift away from their faith shaking their fist at God. They don't drift away by saying, "You know what?

I don't believe you. How can you have done this to me?" They don't drift away from God clinging on to heresy. It's simply out of neglect. They'll say it's important, but it's just not important enough. They'll say it's most important, but by the way that we live, it's just not that important.

There are a lot of other things that are urgent, but this is just not urgent. It just goes into one of those categories, important but not urgent. See, 1 Thessalonians 5.3, it describes how people are condemned. While they are saying, "Peace and safety," then destruction will come upon them, sudden like labor pains upon a woman with a child, and they will not escape.

People who are going to hell did not decide to go to hell. They didn't shake their fist and reject God. It says that when they were saying, "Peace and safety," they are drifting. Which is the greatest tragedy of human history? That most people will find themselves under God's judgment because of sin.

They didn't choose to be there. They didn't outright reject Him. They just drifted. They heard the message. They even professed it. But outside of just professing, there was no evidence of genuine faith, and it wasn't important enough. They were satisfied that they participated in the church, and that was it.

And so for the rest of their life, all they did was drift. While they are saying, "Peace and safety," while they are pursuing what everybody else pursues, while they are pursuing what everybody else desires, while they rejoice over everything else that everybody else rejoices over, while they are pursuing peace and safety, He said they will neglect their salvation, and they will not escape.

Hebrews chapter 4, verse 1, it says, "Therefore let us fear, while a promise remains of entering His rest, and any one of you may seem to have come short of it." You know, I found that especially in our generation, the word "fear" is feared. The word "fear" is feared.

Every time the word "fear" is mentioned, there is always a knee-jerk reaction. Doesn't the Bible say that love casts out fear? Aren't we saved by grace? Why would you keep saying this to fear? Because the Bible says it. Paul says to live out our salvation with fear and trembling.

The chief end of man is to obey God and fear Him over and over again. We are commanded to fear Him. There is a healthy fear that keeps us away from danger. If you get in a boat and you know the storm is coming, and you are afraid that if you get on this boat that you might drown, that's a good fear.

If you go up to the skyscraper and there is no railing, and the platform is slippery, and that causes you to stay away from that platform, that's a good fear. You need that fear. If you live without any fear, you are not going to survive for long. The fear that the Word of God teaches us and warns us, it is for the purpose of keeping us in the narrow path.

And yet in our generation, especially where you and I live, the idea of disturbing peace is disturbing. Any kind of sermon or message or community or small group that challenges the status quo of where we are, we get a pushback. That's not what God says. God is about love.

God is about grace. And yet He says, "How will we escape?" He's not talking to non-Christians. He's not talking to Judaizers. He's talking to Christians who are drifting to their old way of life. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? A lot of times, the neglecting happens because we allow doubts in our head.

It's been so long that you've had answered prayers in your life, that in the back of your head you're asking, "Is God really real?" You've been studying the Word of God, and you're at a church where the Word of God is exposited and is taught and memorized, but there's this nagging fear in your mind or doubt in the back of your mind.

How can you be so sure? I know you believe it, and I know a lot of other people believe it, but I'm not sure if I completely believe it. And as a result of that, it doesn't have the kind of authority in your life. We allow certain doubts in our head because those doubts allow a certain type of lifestyle.

In fact, one of the most honest confessions that I've heard from a sister years ago was she said, "You know, I didn't know the suffering that many people were going through." But that was not the honest confession. The honest confession was, "I didn't know because I didn't want to know." I didn't know because I didn't want to know, because I knew the moment that I dug and I found out how many people were suffering that it would make me feel guilty about what I have.

So she turned it off, or she moved on, or she would make a tiny donation, just enough to calm her conscience, but never did she pursue this. And again, to me, it was one of the most honest confessions. She said, "I was callous because that's the way I wanted to be." See, he says here, how can we escape such a great salvation?

After it was first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who had heard, and God also testified through signs and wonders and various miracles. In other words, this gospel that you heard, it was so important that he says three things that he did to confirm it.

First thing that he said was that he sent his son himself to speak. How often do we think to ourselves, "Only if God would speak to me audibly." How would it change you? If you went home today and God said, "Stop," or "Go," or whatever it is that you're asking for, if God audibly spoke to you, how would that change your response?

I would assume that we would be a lot more obedient. We would take the Word of God a lot more seriously. We would be a bit more careful about what we do and don't do. But the reason why we don't respond that way, because we don't give the Word of God that kind of authority.

The Bible says the words that are contained here was the audible voice of God. That in the past, God spoke through prophets in many ways, in many avenues, but in the new covenant, he spoke directly through his son. Hebrew chapter 1, 2, "In the last days he has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world." Not only did God speak to us audibly through his son directly so that there is no confusion, he took on human form.

It wasn't just audible. He was there in his flesh. He walked among us. He felt what he felt. He ate the food that we ate. He was fatigued. He was tired. He was anxious. He was tempted in every way, yet without sin. Not only did he speak to us audibly, he came and he took on our form.

He says there is no confusion. He made it absolutely crystal clear. In fact, the early hearers of Jesus Christ, says Matthew 7, 28-29, "When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes." I don't think, it doesn't explain to us how they knew, but they heard something different from Jesus.

That they weren't, he wasn't just regurgitating what he heard. He wasn't just a messenger who came to give a message that somebody else told him. The son of God himself came. He wasn't saying, "My father says this." He spoke because he himself had authority. How shall we escape? If we neglect the son of God who came here and spoke to us directly.

In Mark chapter 12, 1-11, Jesus gives this parable about this vineyard owner who planted a vineyard and he began to send his servants to go and speak to them. Every one of them, they beat and they killed. So he thought, "They will not do that to my son. They know the consequence if they do that to my son." Because all the other servants, they didn't take seriously.

They didn't come with the same kind of authority. So if I send my son, it's like me going. So I'm sure they will listen. But you know the parable. They come, not only do they beat him and reject him, they end up killing him. In verse 8, "They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine growers and will give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes." He said that the message of the cross wasn't simply distributed.

It wasn't simply printed. The Son of God himself came. Why did he come to do that? Obviously, he came to be crucified and take away our sins. But everything that he said, he said directly from his mouth. We can understand if there was misunderstanding. We may be able to understand and excuse it if it was vague.

In other words, he's saying, "How can you escape when Jesus himself spoke out of his mouth?" Not only did he speak directly, number two, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. In 1 Corinthians 15, 3-8, Paul says, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received." In other words, before we go on any further than that, Paul says, "Of all the things that I'm saying, this is the most important." And this is true for every Christian.

No matter what is going on in your life, there's nothing more important than what Paul is saying here. Nothing more important. I don't care. It's not that I don't care, but I don't care, right? No matter what it is that we're going through, it is not important than this.

Whatever job problems you have, whatever marriage issues you have, whatever problems you have with your children, whatever business issues that you have, of first importance, because all of that stuff is temporary. There is a solution to all of that. When we get to heaven, there's no more crying, there's no more dying, there's no more sorrow.

So whatever problem that we have, as difficult as it may be, it is temporary. And there is nothing more important than what Paul says here, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received." That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

If He stopped there, He said He appeared to the disciples, He appeared to a few of the disciples, and now they are propagating this message of Jesus said He was going to be crucified, He was going to be resurrected, and the disciples are validating that. Now if He stopped there, that would have been enough.

He goes further and says, "And after He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now." You know how crazy this statement is? I mean, two thousand years removed, we look at this statement, we just kind of read it and say, "Oh, okay, He left a witness." Imagine this being said at the time that these people were living.

If it wasn't true, Apostle Paul is a very, very foolish man, because all they had to do was say, "Let me meet one of these guys." And if they can't find him, it would completely invalidate what he said. He said five hundred are eyewitnesses, and the majority of them are still living, but some have fallen asleep.

Only a few of them have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. Now the reason why this is so important is because in every other religion, you have to believe in one guy.

If you ever studied Buddhism, you know that there's one man named Gautama. He was the guy who said he found enlightenment. He didn't talk about all the details, he just said he found enlightenment. Or he kind of referred to it, and then his disciples went around and propagated this message.

And what's interesting about Buddhism is that Buddhism looks very different from country to country. It just kind of took a life of its own, and they just kind of started to have basic teaching, but it was all based upon supposedly this one man. So whether you believe him or don't believe him, everything falls.

Joseph Smith found the tablet, and so whether you believe him or don't believe him, everything falls and rises based upon if you believe him or not. Muhammad, one guy, had a vision, and all of a sudden, he has this new prophecy, and he turns the world upside down, and all of it is based upon this one man and what he says.

Just in case, just in case somebody would come and say, "Well, Jesus is a crazy guy. I know he had a large following, and I know his disciples loved him, but he's just one crazy guy." And he made sure, because it's easy to nullify one guy and say, "Well, the whole thing is nullified." He made sure that he left a witness with his disciples, and then again for 500 other people.

And what's the craziest thing about this is that even secular scholars today, even those who reject the resurrection, nobody refutes the fact that the early church believed it because of what happened. Because all of a sudden, the Jews and the Gentiles, the Romans and the Jewish community, all of a sudden were calling each other brothers and sisters in Christ.

You had Matthew, the tax collector, that they hated, became one of the first apostles. I mean, humanly speaking, anywhere he went, the Jews would have thrown rocks at this guy. But he becomes one of the first apostles that God uses to establish the early church. Crazy things were happening in the early church.

Some people say, "Oh, it's because they were poor, and Jesus fed the poor." If you look at it, there's aristocrats. There are very, very wealthy people, all mixed group of people. Nobody refutes that the early church believed it. But if they're going to acknowledge that, they have to explain then what happened.

So you have some theories that Jesus had a twin brother and he faked people out, or he was a mass hypnotist, or he didn't really die. He just kind of had a light heart attack, and then he just came back to life because they refuse. And the Bible makes that clear.

The reason why they refuse is because they love the darkness rather than the light. So if they're going to embrace the darkness, they have to justify the darkness, even though it makes no sense. This message was this important. What Jesus came to do is of first importance. So he spoke it himself.

He didn't just send a messenger. He didn't just speak audibly. He came. So today, when we say, "What is God like?" We don't have to imagine. We don't have to imagine God to be some cloud. We don't need to draw him that way because he came to us, and he left witnesses with his followers.

In Luke chapter 1, 1 through 4, Luke is writing a detailed account of what happened in the early church to a man named Theophilus, possibly a Roman official. And this is what he says, "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word." Luke being a physician took his discipline, and he went around, and he started to jot down, just like a historian would, to jot down the history of Christianity.

It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts.

And those two letters were written specifically to give account, historical account. So he went and began to interview those people who saw Christ, the early apostles, and what was being done. And so Luke and Acts is that account. And obviously Matthew, Mark, and John is also an account. But Luke starts his letters this way.

He left irrefutable evidence of Christ. Now why is this so important? Because, just like that sister I told you made an honest confession, "I am ignorant because I chose to be ignorant." You and I lived during a period where we have access to the truth like no other generation before us, ever.

And I remember early years preparing for sermons, I mentioned to you, like back then I thought it was, you know, like I actually moved to La Mirada just so that I can be closer to the library. Because I needed to be in the library to get to the reference books.

And some of you guys may remember the duodecimal system, right? Anybody who, any response, I know how old you are, right? So some of you guys know, they got rid of that now, right? You have to go find a duodecimal system and find it, and you got to go where it is, and then go.

If you happen to be a big library, you got to walk a while, get the books, bring it back to the table. You know, I remember back then if I had a question about the Bible, I had to wait till I made an appointment with my professor, and I would go in and ask him a question.

Sometimes it would take two weeks just to ask him a question. I mean, today I do all my sermon prep right in front of my computer. And I just type in, you know. And sometimes you guys ask me questions, and then I say, "I'll get back to you," and I just Google it, and then I...

I was like, "I wonder why you can't Google it." But I Google it, and I send it right back to you like I did it myself, right? That's how easy it is, right? We have access to the truth like no other generation. And yet, there is more doubt and more drifting and more neglecting in our generation than any other generation, simply because it's easy.

It's easy. So we are okay with superficial faith. We are okay with superficial devotion. And then whenever we have even a slight bit of doubt, we allow that to linger and use that as an excuse of why we don't pay attention. There's a huge difference between questioning and asking questions.

And I would never discourage anybody from asking questions, because I'm a firm believer. I believe what I believe and what I profess to be absolutely true, that any genuine pursuit of truth, genuine pursuit of truth, will lead you to God. I believe that with all my heart. If you are genuinely pursuing truth, but when you are questioning, there is no answer for that, because when you are questioning, you already made up your mind.

And if you find an answer, you'll find another question. And if you find an answer, you'll find another question. I don't know how many times I counsel somebody who says, "You know what, I don't know if I really believe this." And then they'll throw it out there, and I say, "Well, great.

There's some great material for you to read." And I give it to them, and they never read it. You just told me that you're about to walk away from your faith because you have this doubt, and you won't even take ten minutes to read this material to find out if it's true?

That says a lot more about your questioning than your question, because you're looking for an excuse to walk away. You're looking for an excuse. But if we pursue the truth, Scripture says God left His imprint in creation. God gave special revelation. He himself spoke directly. And then He left His imprint among His disciples in the early church, and He gave us His word.

And to not to examine that, not to carefully look into that, and simply say, "I doubt." You're not doubting because you've examined, and you looked, and you asked, and your end conclusion was it didn't make sense. You just doubted because you wanted to. That sounds a lot like Romans chapter 1.

They refuse the truth because they prefer the darkness, and doubting justifies the darkness. And that's what He is saying. How can you escape if you neglect such a great salvation that was spoken directly from His Son, that was given to His disciples in the early church and left a clear imprint?

That's why Paul says in Philippians chapter 1, 20 through 26, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." If I am to live on the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which to choose, but I am hard-pressed from both directions.

Having a desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better, yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. In other words, Apostle Paul says, "If you're asking me, it's better for me to go." We look at something like that where Apostle Paul says, "Man, this guy's extreme.

Of course he's an apostle. He has special gifts. Of course he would be this extreme." But clearly, this is not for average Christians. Think about what we sing. Think about what it is that you and I profess to believe. What Paul is saying here is a logical response. I have a room filled with people who say that all of this is vanity.

They're all perishing. Once we die, there's judgment, inasmuch as it is appointed for all man to die once. After this comes judgment. We're not talking about getting a better job. We're not talking about consequence of our children not making it to the school that they want to go to.

We're talking about eternal consequences. What Paul is saying here is that in light of this message, in light of what he has seen, in light of what he believes, everything else truly is rubbish. For every Christian, this is true. We're living in a sinful world. And there's sin that has affected us.

It affects the way we feel. It affects the way we think. It affects our desires. It affects our values. It affects what we want. It affects our hope. It affects everything. And the longer you live, the more you will see the effects of sin close up. When you're younger, you think that maybe if I did this, maybe if I got a better job and a better bank account, maybe if I did this, maybe if I met the right guy, maybe if we had these kind of children.

And you're thinking this, but you know why people go through a midlife crisis? Because they get to a certain point of age and they realize that everything that Bible said was true. Sin affects everything. And everything that you thought was valuable, and you fall into despair. If that's what you were pursuing.

Because all of a sudden, everything that you pursued, all of a sudden becomes a reality that truly was vanity. I was pursuing the wrong thing. Is this it? And so they go through a midlife crisis. But a wise person recognizes this truth and what we profess when we're young, just like we were talking about, that you don't wake up after you have drifted and failed for a period of time.

You recognize the wisdom for what the Scripture says. And pay attention so that we do not drift. Third and finally, it says, "God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit." Before we drift from the meaning of this, because one of these days I'm going to just devote my time in understanding signs, wonders, and miracles.

But for today, I want to just make sure that we understand what he's saying here. What does it mean to be a sign of something? Just think for a second. He says, "Signs, miracles, signs and wonders and miracles." What is a sign? And don't think theologically. You guys are thinking too theologically.

Just think as a regular pedestrian. I'll give you a hint. What is a sign? It points to something. Here comes a sign. Well, that sign is not there as a decoration. Sign is not there so it's like, "Wow, that square is perfect." That's not why it's there. The sign is there to serve a purpose.

And that purpose is to point to something. It's to point to something. So remember that. The reason why I say this is because a lot of times people look for signs and wonders to be wowed. They look at signs and wonders to be touched. But the purpose of signs and wonders is to point, is to direct.

And he says, "Through signs and wonders and miracles," what did it point to? What did it direct the people to? To Christ and to who He is and what He has done. To validate what? That He's powerful? Yes. But why does His power need to be validated? Because He was the Son of God and because of what He'd come to do.

The whole point of signs and wonders and miracles is to pay attention to what Christ was saying. He was trying to get us to validate what He was saying. And that's why the Scripture says about the Holy Spirit, John 15, 26, "When the Helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about," what?

About me. The Holy Spirit didn't come so that we can have tingly feelings, so that when we sing we can sing loud. There's nothing wrong with any of that. But the purpose of why the Holy Spirit was sent was so that it can point to Christ. And that's why the signs and wonders and miracles were taking place.

And that's why it says John chapter 3, 1 and 2, "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.'" That was his whole point.

To validate what he was saying, to validate who he is. Again in Acts 2, 22, Peter says, "Men of Israel, listen to these words, 'Jesus of Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.'" In other words, you may want to reject what he has said, you may want to reject what other people said, but how can you deny what you saw?

It was for the purpose of validating Christ. And again in Matthew 9, 6, "So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, 'Get up, pick up your bed, and go home.'" He didn't perform these miracles so that they could say, "Oh, you know, your life is hard, so I don't want you to be limping anymore.

Oh, you're hungry, so I want you to be fed." All of these things are true. God calls us to be compassionate. But he says, "I perform these miracles so that you may know the real reason why I came, to forgive you of your sins." The primary and of most importance for every Christian is not the miracles, but what it points to, is Christ crucified.

I know so many people who profess to have all kinds of gifts, who've seen all kinds of things, experienced all kinds of things with the Holy Spirit, who are no longer walking with God. And Jesus said, when Thomas saw the resurrected Christ, you know, he said, "Well, it's hard for me to believe, even though he's standing right there.

Let me touch your scars." He allows him to touch his scars, puts his finger in his scars, and then when he realized that this was the resurrected Christ, he gets on his knees and he says, "My Lord and my God." My Lord and my God. But remember what Jesus says?

"You believe because you have seen, but blessed are those who believe and yet they have not seen." So in other words, you believe because I'm standing in front of you. In other words, he's saying he left his imprint. He left his imprint of who he is, his resurrection, who he is all around us.

If we pay attention very carefully, God is speaking. And he's speaking very clearly. And the reason why we don't listen, or the reason why we don't hear him, is not because he's not speaking. It's because we are cluttered in our life with noise. And so because there's so much noise around us, we say, "God, where are you?

Why aren't you speaking?" Isn't that frustrating? I know, boyfriend, girlfriend, and husband and wife, you know, one of the most frustrating conversations is both of you are speaking, but nobody is listening. And you just speak louder and louder, thinking that if you speak louder, the other person will listen, but the other person listens even less.

I've never experienced that in my life, but I know you guys know what I'm talking about. And a lot of times we do that with God. Where are you? Why aren't you speaking? Not realizing that we have drowned out his voice with the things that we are engaged in.

Not only did the signs point to Christ, he gave that authority even to the apostles. In Acts 2.43, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe that many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 2 Corinthians 12.12, let me read one more last passage. Signs and true apostleship were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles.

All of these things took place to ultimately bring us to God. He says, and he finishes that with an exclamation mark, "According to his own will." That's his will. How often do you pray to know his will? Does God want you to have this job? Does God want you to go to this school?

God wants you to date this guy or this girl? God wants you to marry this guy? Does God want you to invest here? How often do you ask to know the will of God? And the reason why we want to know the will of God is because we want his blessing.

Because we're afraid that if we go against his will, God's not going to bless us. So ultimately, we're not really trying to surrender our will to God. We're trying to seek where God's will is so that we can find the blessing. So if I'm going to do this business, I want to make sure that God's will is this business because if I do his will, he's going to bless my life.

God made it very clear what his will is. He says this is his will. It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God. Paul says, "I resolve to know nothing but Christ crucified." To me, everything has become rubbish in light of knowing the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ.

He said, "I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they too may come to faith." So everything that Paul did, lived and died, was in accordance to God's will. We don't need to search. We don't need to ask questions because he made it crystal clear. If Christ crucified is not the primary passion in our life, you are outside of his will.

No matter how successful you are, no matter how many verses you can quote, he says this is in accordance to the will of God. As I wrap up the message this morning, the book of Hebrews is so relevant to all of us, including myself, because I catch myself drifting all the time.

You know the benefit of having to preach every Sunday is that I have to be sober or else I have to be really good at faking it. So the benefit is that I have to be in the Word and I have to encourage and I have to catch myself, I have to examine myself.

So there's an added benefit of being a pastor because it forces me to catch myself when I see myself drifting. But this struggle is constant. It's constant. Concerns for my family, concern for my parents, concern for my children, concern even for the church at times. Concern about world affairs, about politics, about the economy, bank account, retirement, friends, leisure.

I mean you have so much that we're blessed with. But then this blessing easily becomes a trap because we begin to rely on them. There's no desperation in our hearts because my bills will be paid whether I pray or not. You know, things will go, things will be fine next year.

I just won't be that passionate. But again, like I said, the benefit of being in front of the Word of God is the Word of God constantly judges the thoughts and intentions of my heart to not to drift. So if it's this hard for a pastor, I know how hard it is for you.

I know how easily we can get entangled. I know how easily just having finals can cause you to drift and then drift for a long time. I know how easily getting married and being worried about your wife and husband, how that can easily entangle you and you disappear for a while.

I know what it's like to have a kid and be sleep deprived and then just have no energy to do anything and then you just start drifting. It doesn't take a lot for us to drift. And this is why God puts us together. He says, "Consider how you may provoke one another on toward loving good deeds, especially as you see the day drawing near." As the world becomes darker and darker and they begin to embrace immoral things openly and publicly, if we do not build a community that is provoking one another so that we do not drift, we will drift.

It's not we might drift, we're already drifting. So we have to commit. And that's why the book of Hebrews is so important to us. So we do not drift. How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? So my prayer is again, as we continue to go through the Hebrews, one, that we recognize how great the salvation is.

And secondly, once we recognize that, we do everything in our power to not drift. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.