Spiritual Drift

Transcript

Sixty seems like a long time in some ways, and in other ways it seems like it’s gone by quite rapidly, and as though it was just a whisper here and gone, so to speak, as far as that length of time.  I mentioned about having a lot of thoughts when Mr. Treybig mentioned about the anniversary and asked if some of us from the office would be able to come over and I was certainly happy to come over, and others are here as well from the office and others who have come for this special occasion.  A lot of firsts for me occurred in this area coming from Arkansas at the age of 18 to Ambassador College, plus of course the years prior to that attending the Feast of Tabernacles.  But probably the greatest part of that whole experience is certainly the friendships that were made and the fact that here we are, in my case 40 plus years after graduating from Ambassador College, and still having close friends from that period of time.  It was a very special time in all of our lives.  The congregation of the Radio Church of God began in the area as I said in 1953.  I’m not sure of the actual date; no one seems to be able to confirm exactly when that occurred.  At the Feast of Tabernacles that year, though, there were 750 people; I’ve confirmed that, who were here for the Feast of Tabernacles.  It’s amazing to think of the church as being that large at that time, because most people only had a radio service.  That’s what our family had; we listened to the radio every night at 7:00 on WLAC Nashville for us, and heard the broadcast…that was our church service for about ten years.  

To have a church service to go to, to have the Feast of Tabernacles and have 750 people must have been quite a thing at that time.  While that wasn’t all that large, there were still less than a thousand people, or a thousand baptized members in the Radio Church of God at that particular juncture.  But 750 attending a service were quite a bit more than the 45 that were attending in 1946 up in Oregon.  But yet it was still very small.  After 20 years of preaching and teaching on the radio daily, the church was not very big.  Something amazing began to happen in the 1950’s and families were called and people began attending services, congregations were established, ministers were sent out.  It was quite a period of time.  I think we all know that.  But think back with me today to that 1953 date—even if you were not here, try to imagine what it would have been like to attend your first church service after maybe years of listening on the radio.  In my family’s case, we spent ten years listening on the radio before we ever had a service to attend.  Think back to that 1953 date and attending your first service.  What was it like?  What would you think it would have been like?  And now fast forward to the year 2013 and here we are in October actually it’s quite interesting that we’re in the month of October because it was in October of 1933, 80 years ago this year, that the Radio Church of God began as an organization.  

The Church has been around obviously much longer than that, but as an organization Radio Church of God began in October 1933.  But if you can imagine what it would have been like in 1953, maybe to have listened on the radio for years and to have a church service…then fast forward to today – 2013.  Is the Church different today than it was in that date, or on that date in 1953?  And how is it different?  Are we as individuals – and you pick whatever date you attended your first service – are you different today?  How are you different?  What’s happened in your life in the last 30 years, 40 years, or 10 years if that’s the length of time you’ve been in the Church?  I know many people traveling around to different places who’ve been in the Church certainly going back to the 1950’s.  They have a lot of stories to tell.  Sometimes we can get into the habit of sometimes “the good old’ days”, sometimes the “bad old’ days”, you know, depending upon events and perspectives.  But how are we different today and what has caused that in the last – again, you fill in the blank – number of years?

In the book of Revelation, we have messages to seven churches.  We look upon Revelation, of course, as a prophetic book, and we look upon Revelation 2 and 3 as a part of prophecy.  Prophecies about what the Church would be like down through the years, as well as what the Church will be like throughout all the years.  I’d like for you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 3 and verse 15.

This is a sad story here in a lot of ways, where we have described a church.  Verse 15 of Revelation 3.  The message from the angel, a message obviously from God through the angel:

Revelation 3:15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth.” 

Other translations say “I will discard you.”  “I will reject you.”

Now I read these verses and I read some of the others as well about the Church, and I ask myself the question, “How did Laodicea get to this point?”  I don’t think for a moment they started this way.  Again, I could be wrong.  I don’t think they started that way. I don’t think you start out lukewarm.  Again, maybe I’m wrong, but that would be my impression.  I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone just coming into the church that I would have considered lukewarm.  Now, again, maybe there are those that have come and really were not that interested, and I guess, I’m sure, there probably have.  But I recall vividly, certainly during my time as pastor in New England, in Massachusetts, visiting new people.  (This would go back to the 1980’s) in visiting every day one family after another family and because of the distances involved I could be visiting out on Cape Cod or down in Fall River, Massachusetts, or up on the north shore north of the city of Boston, and I’d be getting home at two or three o’clock in the morning.  When I’d get home I couldn’t sleep, because I was still so excited to sit in a family’s home and have them tell me how thrilled they are to learn the truth and to find out there’s a church for them to attend.  I didn’t see any—well, I shouldn’t say I didn’t see any who were lukewarm – but the people that were coming into the church weren’t lukewarm.  They were excited, they were thrilled, they could not wait to get there, and so many of them, of course, became members of the Church back in those years.  I don’t believe that Laodicea started out lukewarm.  I don’t believe the first day they attended church they were lukewarm.  The prophecy describes them as being cast off, rejected by God, because somewhere, somehow along the way something happened.  They became somewhat disengaged.  They began to consider religion as maybe just something they do like they go to work, or like they meet other people, and the Church was no longer special.  It was routine.  Did it take five years?  Did it take ten years?  Or was it twenty years, or thirty years?  How long did it take the Laodiceans to get to this point, where God declared that He would reject them unless they changed? 

Now there are a lot of ways to go when you talk about the concept of being lukewarm.  Let’s go to Hebrews chapter 2.  This afternoon I’d like to explore what happens to Christians and to churches over time.  What happens and why?

Hebrews chapter 2, I believe, provides a very interesting answer and a very interesting angle on what happens in people’s lives over time.  Now, it doesn’t have to, but it certainly can.  The book of Hebrews is a very interesting book. When I was in Ambassador College, we were taught that it was probably written by the Apostle Paul.  I don’t think I’ve completely changed my opinion; I realize there could be other opinions as well; that’s somewhat irrelevant to the fact of what is stated here.  In the beginning of the book of Hebrews in the New King James Version, there’s an introductory statement about the book.  This is what it says:  “Many Jewish believers, having stepped out of Judaism into Christianity, want to reverse their course in order to escape persecution by their countrymen.  The writer of Hebrews exhorts them to go on to perfection.”  One of the underlying themes of the book of Hebrews are people who’ve been around a long time, Jewish Christians coming out of Judaism, coming into Christianity, and over time something’s happened to them.  I don’t know if the New King James explanation is correct, that they wanted to go back to Judaism…I don’t know necessarily that that’s true, but maybe it is.  The point being they’ve been around a long time, and an underlying theme is, you know, you really need to find that spark again.  You really need to find something to excite you again.  You’ve taken an approach toward religion that is not good.  They didn’t start out that way.  Look at the early years of the Church, and I’m sure some of these people that are being addressed in Hebrews were there as well, and it was exciting.  There were people being healed because of Peter’s shadow.  There were things occurring that you could not imagine coming from anywhere but God.  And thousands of people are coming into the Church.  And I don’t think they came in lukewarm.  They were excited; they had a thrill, or they were thrilled to be there.  These Hebrews were probably the same way, but now we’re thirty, forty years later, in this case.  Look what Paul, or the author of Hebrews, writes in chapter two verse one.

Hebrews 2:1  “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”

Now that’s a very interesting perspective.  It isn’t as though the truth leaves us; it’s as though we leave it.  The truth is solid, it’s sound, but individuals drift away.  Let’s go on in verse 2:

Verse 2-3  “For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”

The truth is referred to as this great salvation.  Is there any greater knowledge than what God has given us?  Is there anything that will ultimately provide you any more information, knowledge, about the future and your way of life than the truth that God has provided?

Verses 3-4  “(a great salvation), which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,  God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders.”

This group of individuals saw many miracles.  I believe, because I know from our own family that, from my perspective even as a child, there were quite a few miracles.  Everything from how people got to the Feast of Tabernacles with, you know, their car having no fuel in it, and just so many different things happening that people would say well, you know, “God intervened for us.  God helped us.”  They saw the same things: signs and wonders and various miracles.  But one of the greatest things of all is the gifts of the Holy Spirit; the fruit that that Spirit produces can change lives.  One of the greatest pleasures in being a pastor that I think back to often, and miss greatly, is to see an individual who makes first contact – you make the first visit with them, you see the growth and the change, and you see the fruits of God’s Spirit in their lives and their families.  And in some cases, their background was just totally the opposite.  That has to be the greatest miracle, and it happened over and over and over and over again.  These people saw that as well.  Yet they’re being told “Don’t drift away.”  The term “drift” here is a nautical term, or the Greek word is a nautical term.  It is applied mostly to ships.  And a ship sitting in a harbor without being properly anchored will drift away.  You can imagine this huge ship sitting on the water in a harbor, and if it doesn’t have a proper anchor, it isn’t tied down it will drift away.  It’s hard to imagine that it can do that, but it will drift away.  The concept of drifting away is something that doesn’t happen in a few minutes, a few hours, a few weeks, but mostly occurs over a few years, or maybe many years.  Drifting away.

Young’s Literal Translation translates verse 1 here this way: “So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have learned or have heard, or we may drift away from it.”  I submit to you that most people who leave the Church or leave the faith do so incrementally.  It isn’t over doctrine, or it could be; and it isn’t over relationships, although it could be.  But it’s a gradual drifting away.  It becomes less important than it was last month, last year.  And pretty soon, it isn’t important at all.

I used to collect newspaper articles and magazine articles, put them in a file where I could use them for sermons later on…just collect them when I read them.  Now that’s pretty archaic; I don’t do that anymore.  You go on the internet, you type in a few words and bang, you’ve got forty different articles on a particular subject.  You don’t have to make these files and file things away anymore.  But back in the olden days, I picked up a newspaper article and this was back when we were living in Georgia, and the article was about two men who drowned in Lake Lanier.  Lake Lanier is a man-made lake just north of Atlanta, a beautiful lake.  It was built by, it came into being, when they built the Buford Dam just out of Buford, Georgia, and good fishing in the area.  These two men were fishing on Lake Lanier, and they drowned.  But it was the story of how they drowned that was sad, obviously, very sad, but it was intriguing, because there was a principle there and a point to be made.  The article tells about them fishing; they were so interested in fishing they weren’t paying attention to the fact that their boat was gradually drifting toward the dam.  And because of a lot of water, a lot of rain that year, they were releasing water under the dam, which caused the current to go toward the dam.  And by the time they realized where they were, they go over the dam and both men are killed.  This is the article.  “Two young men were fishing above the Buford Dam on the Suwannee River near their hometown of Buford, Georgia.  They were fishing on Lake Lanier, a man-made lake that was developed prior to World War II.  As they were concentrating on catching fish they were unaware that they had drifted until they were not far from the water flowing over the dam.  When they realized their situation, the current near the dam had become too powerful for them to keep their boat from going over.  Below the dam the water was dashing with strong force to the river below.  The lake was above flood stage, so water was being allowed to go over the dam.  The two young men could not stop their boat from going over the top of the dam and falling almost 100 feet.  Caught by the swirling waters of the rocks, the bodies never came to the surface.  After days of relentless searching, the divers finally found one body, and then two or three days later found the other.”

Now this tragedy was totally avoidable.  They knew better than to fish close to the dam, but the drift of the boat was so gradual they did not realize it until they were too close to the dam to reverse it.

A few years ago a NASA engineer was asked, “How far off course could the space shuttle be and still arrive at the moon?” if that was the destination, or the rocket.  The question was “Could it be 2 degrees off course?”  Not 360 degrees, could it be 2 degrees off course?  The engineer pulled out his calculator and started punching in numbers.  To be 2 degrees off when you blast off and taking into consideration the time and distance traveled, you’ll not only miss your point of orbital entry, but you’ll miss the moon by 11,121 miles.  Two degrees.

In less than a month, November 22nd of this year, as a nation, I guess it wouldn’t be correct to say “celebrate” but certainly recognize the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  He was killed, as we know, on a trip to Dallas.  Now everyone remembers who was alive then where he was when the news came of that particular event.  It was, you might say, the 9/11 of that particular day.  But a lot of people claimed at that point in time something else began to change.  They claimed it was the age of innocence…Camelot was proclaimed, and Camelot ended.  The nation began to change incrementally, it seems.  But here we are fifty years later, when you look at morality, you look at values, you look at families, you look at this nation.  Can we not say that it is very different than it was in November of 1963?  It didn’t happen in a week.  It didn’t happen in a month.  It didn’t happen in a year.  But over fifty years of incremental change of drifting away from certain values and principles, we find our country today in terrible trouble.  A country that is not the same country that so many of us grew up in back in the 1960’s.  Now again, that doesn’t…I am not proclaiming that 1963 was the perfect time in the history of America, but simply drawing the point that incremental change in drifting away from principles generally doesn’t happen overnight.  The Laodicean church did not become what it was overnight.  Who we are today didn’t happen overnight.  One of the things that I read recently is the fact that today, if you hold onto values and principles, that you’re afraid to tell someone.  Now again, very different from 1963.  You’re afraid to tell someone because—and this particular author said there are two reasons why people will not speak up today.  He says, first of all is the fear of offending the large majority of church members who are living below the biblical standard.  Now this is again a Protestant writer who’s writing this.  And second, he says, the fear of being labeled judgmental, legalistic, holier-than-thou, and lacking in Christian love.  For those two reasons individuals essentially accept that standards have gone down and will continue to go down rather than being demonized and ridiculed for making a statement.  Is that not true of our society today?

Robert Bork wrote a book called Slouching Toward Gomorrah, and that book was written twenty-five or thirty years ago, I guess, but here is a quote.  He says, “With each new evidence of deterioration, we lament for a moment, and then we become accustomed to it.”  The old “frog in a kettle” type of syndrome where incremental change rarely seems to upset anyone.  But over time the drifting becomes noticeable.  We are a noticeably different country than we were in 1963.  We have noticeably different values today.

What about the Church?  What about the Church?  You take a broader view of just churches in general, you’ll find it quite interesting.  In the United States, every single year there are 4,000 new churches started.  Four thousand every year.  But also each year there are 3,500 to 4,000 that close their doors for lack of attendance.  It didn’t happen in a few weeks, didn’t happen in a few months, but over time it occurred.  Churches die daily, or weekly I guess you would say, every year.  It happens.  Those that survive, interesting things—they face the same problem of passing generations.  One of the conclusions of this one particular author is that the life of a church organization is about four generations.  Each generation considered to be 20 years, which interestingly enough, would be about 80 years.  The Radio Church of God was founded 80 years ago this month.  Radio Church of God began in October of 1933…eighty years ago this year as a Church of God organization.  Now, I’m confident that none of us were there in 1933…although I think Mr. Blackwell is old enough to have been there.  Eighty years ago.  I believe if you look around, think about it, we are probably in the fourth generation.  Probably.  Again, you can slice it a little bit differently.  Have we drifted—this is a rhetorical question for you.  Have we drifted from the initial zeal and fervor for God’s way of life…at all?  How do you view that beginning point?  Are you a better Christian today than you were when you began?  What about your families?  Are you and they as committed today as the day you walked into that very first service? 

Some interesting biblical examples.  Turn with me to Genesis chapter 12 on this concept of drifting.  If you haven’t figured it out, my sermon today is “Spiritual Drifting.”  How does it happen?  How can we prevent it?  What does God have to say to us today if indeed one could say we are in the fourth generation of, let’s say, the modern age of the Church?

Genesis chapter 12 we have some individuals introduced to us that become extremely important, not only during that period of time, but in the latter history of Israel.  We have Abraham, we have his calling, and we have Abraham being told to go to the land of Canaan.  And look at verse 4.

Genesis 12:4  “So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and (notice this) Lot went with him.  And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

Now again, I—you can’t compare the experiences that we go through today, you know, it isn’t an apples-to-apples, with Abraham, and his being directed by God, you know, to compare that to our calling, you know, again, I could make that comparison, but I can’t guarantee you that that’s exactly right.  But Abraham spoke directly with God, and God called him, instructed him to go to Canaan.  And notice there was someone else involved here.  This individual, the nephew, was Lot.  It appears that Lot doesn’t have a family at this point.  But he is as committed as Abraham, it appears, (or Abram) to doing what God said.  Everything I know of this period of time, Abram was very wealthy, that means Lot had plenty as well, for them to abandon that and leave was a huge thing.  For Lot as well.  I mean, Lot—we don’t know how old Lot was.  Abraham is seventy-five; this is his nephew.  He appears not to have been married, so he’s a younger man, but he has enough commitment that he walks away from everything to follow with his uncle.  I don’t think Abram hid anything from Lot.  He told him that God had directed this; maybe Lot heard God as well.  And he left with Abram.

Chapter 13.  Follow the story of Lot.  Chapter 13.  We know that in Chapter 13 there is a problem with the herdsmen, and they decide to divide the land where their herds, where their cattle and their flocks will be able to graze.  So in verse 10:

Genesis 13:10  “And Lot (has a choice) lifted (up) his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (this was) (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah)   (It looked) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.”  

So this was a fabulous place.  Lot selected it.  Now there’s nothing wrong with that.  Abraham gave him the choice.  He selected it.  It wasn’t wrong for him to select this plain.  Abram took the other part, and he took that.  But there’s something else going to happen.

Verse 11  “Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east.  And they separated from each other.”

Then verse 12:

Verse 12  “Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.”

Now, it’s interesting here, he pitched his tent toward Sodom.  He wasn’t in Sodom at this point.  He was living among the cities, though, that were there in the plains.  He evidently marries; he evidently has a family.  A lot of things begin to happen in Lot’s life.  But his relationship with Abram appears to have changed, and clearly, as we begin to see, there was a beginning of a change in his relationship with God, as he pitches his tent toward Sodom.

In chapter 14 verse 12.  The next mention of Lot, we see this, the example:

Genesis 14:12  “They also took Lot (this is where Abram intervenes), Abram’s brother’s son who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.”

So we’ve gone from choosing the plain and living among the cities, pitching his tent toward Sodom to now we’re told he lives in Sodom.  Incremental change, drifting away from something.  Relationship with God, relationship with Abram.  It’s a little hard to know from the story; we don’t have all the details.  But then we pick up the story in chapter 19.  Chapter 19, verse 1.  You know the story, that the angels, the Lord has come to Abram and told him what He’s about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah because they are so evil.  Abram sort of debates with God if there’s so many righteous, you know, will you spare the city?  He’s worried about his nephew Lot, and now Lot’s family.  Lot has married, Lot has two daughters, they are married, and he has sons-in-law as well.  So they have settled down in Sodom.  How long did that take?  Well, it didn’t take a few months.  This is probably a few years have gone by from the time he lived in the plain among the cities, till he pitches his tent toward the city, till he moves into the city, and now notice as the two angels come into Sodom, Lot saw them…or, I’m sorry, Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom when he saw them.  There are several writers who will say that by sitting in the gate, he may have been a mayor, one of the mayors, or leaders, or elders of the city.  They sat in the gate.  So follow the process over a period of … now how long…was it five years, ten years, twenty years?  How long did it take for Lot to divide from Abram, live in the plain, pitch his tent toward Sodom, move into the city, marry and have children, and they get married, and he’s an elder in the city of Sodom?  At a time when God declares these cities are so evil and corrupt “I must destroy them.”  An unusual thing for God to declare.  Twenty years, thirty years?  How long went by?  Lot still maintains an element of righteousness, so much so—and again, you wonder how much of Abram’s righteousness entered into this as well—that the angels are going to spare them, Lot and his family, when the city is destroyed.  Notice verse 9.  But Lot has changed.  Lot isn’t the same person that left with Abram when Abram was seventy-five years old, and left their whole area and pulled up stakes and moved to Canaan.  He’s not the same person.  He obviously has a family, he’s married, he has daughters, all of this has occurred, but follow the story.  And we find in verse 9, that as things get very unruly around his home, that he offers his two daughters to the men who are at the door.  This is from a man who was with righteous Abram, who left his home and came with nothing—obviously they had material things—to Canaan and he had the richest area that looked like the garden of Eden was his.  Twenty years go by, maybe thirty years go by, and look at his state now.  Could you say that Lot is better today than he was when God called him, or God called Abram?  Could you say that he has improved in his relationship with God?  Is he a better person?  What kind of person would offer his two daughters?  What’s happened to his thinking?  What’s happened to his mind?  What’s happened to Lot?  Incrementally, he has drifted from where he was.  Did it take twenty years?  Did it take thirty years?  What did it take? 

One author said this:  “From pitching his tent near Sodom, to living in Sodom, to adopting some of their standards, to hesitating to leave, how long did this take?  No one is sure, but it certainly took years for it to happen.”  And, of course, you know the story that the angels had to take him by the hand and lead him out of the city.  He was reluctant to go.  His sons-in-law didn’t go.  His wife lingered and looked back, so much so, that later on Christ used her as an example to remember when the end comes.  Why?  What is there about Lot’s wife?  What had she become?  Now, I don’t know if anyone can definitively say, I certainly don’t know, where Lot’s wife came from.  Maybe she was a native of Sodom.  Maybe she grew up in that city and it wasn’t so bad to her.  Lot didn’t grow up there.  Lot was called, or Lot was with Abram when he was called. He had a different opportunity.  It appears as though he had to bear some responsibility for what happened to his family.  And of course the tragic cases of things that happened later on.  But it didn’t happen overnight. It happened over a period of time…a gradual drifting away.

The Laodicean church, in my opinion, didn’t become Laodicean overnight.  I don’t think they started out that way, but look what happened.

There was a book, again, a number of years ago, entitled Historical Drift and the subtitle was Must My Church Die?  The author was Arnold Cook.  He said something that I think is self-evident.  You don’t necessarily need him to say this.  “The second generation of any church or organization, really, for that matter holds its convictions less fervently than the pioneers.  With each succeeding generation, isolation from the world becomes more and more difficult.”

If you think of the example of ancient Israel, that certainly speaks to what they did.  Think of the period of time during the judges, and how you would go from one generation that seemed to have it all together, then within two or three generations, it had fallen apart again.  So much so that when you get to the end of the book of Judges, the last verse in Judges says what?  You probably have it committed to memory.  “Since there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  That is not the way they started.  That is not where they were when they began.  How long did it take them to get to that point?  That period of time was…what, 300 years?  They weren’t in a good place, and God wasn’t pleased with them.

Most studies show that in the second generation, there’s a fifty percent drop-off.  In the third generation, it’s estimated that less than 30 percent actually hold to the original mission and purpose of the organization.  And by the time you get to the fourth generation, you see that scarcely fifteen percent really hold tight to their beliefs and their convictions, or the convictions previously.  How does this happen?  Does it have to happen?  Is that what God intended, that from one generation to the next in the two-thousand-year history of the Church it would become less fervent?  Or is there not an implied principle in Christianity that you become better over time?  

I had someone tell me a few years ago if you’re not better because you were in the Church, or if you’re not better because you were a Christian, then there’s something wrong.  If Christianity is to make you a better person, and if the Church should be a contributor to that, and that’s not happening, why?  What is wrong?

Let’s go to Luke chapter 14.  One thing we must establish early on that the principles upon which we began, and upon which we still hold dear today, are very high principles.  Jesus Christ set a very high standard for Christianity.  Luke chapter 14 and beginning in verse 25 is a section of scripture that I always cover in baptismal counseling.  I think most ministers do that as well.  You’re not trying to scare someone from being baptized, but you want them to understand that the principles upon which you are committing to are very high principles…very high principles.

Luke 14:25  “Now great multitudes went with him.  And He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”

How many times, and again, please take this in the context of this, has—and I heard this many times when I was pastoring in New England, where people said, “Well, I like what you’re saying, I believe what you’re saying, but you know my family’s not interested, and my family is more important than that.  My family is the most important thing in my life.”  Now from a physical level, I understand that.  The Church emphasizes your family, you are to love your family, you are to help your family, encourage your family.  But is your family more important than your relationship with God?  It’s a very important question.  And how many times do we put something else there?

Jesus Christ set the standard.  Jesus Christ said the bar is here, that unless I, unless my Father, are the most important things in your life, you have missed the bar.  The most important…more important than any other human being.  Again, that’s not at all diminishing the role of the family, the importance of spending time with your family, encouraging your family, and helping your family.  But Christ said it; we didn’t say it.  The Church didn’t say it; Christ said it.  You must put God first.  We always said the word “hate” is a very strong word, but Christ intended to make a point.  You’re not to hate anyone; we know that.  Christ said that.  So why did He use the word “hate”?  Because He wanted to make a point about what is expected of you.  That point was clearly made when He used the word “hate.”  You must put God first to be a Christian.  He goes on to say:

Verses 27-29  “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it—  lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him.”

Is there any doubt that Christ is using the example of building a house or building a building, that you’d better be committed to finishing it when you start it?  When you start this life, you’d better be committed to finishing it.  And finishing it with a flourish…finishing it with the same enthusiasm and excitement as you began.  Laodicea didn’t get where they were overnight.  You and I are where we are because of many years of experience.  But where are we?  And what are we today?

Turn with me to Daniel chapter 7.  One of the more interesting verses that I came across a number of years ago, and I’d never heard it explained this way before, and I’ve heard it, obviously, since, but for some reason I’d never heard this little section of scripture pulled out and explained.  It’s actually found in the midst of this quite intricate prophecy here in Daniel chapter 7 in Daniel’s visions about, you know, we talk about the four beasts.  But verse 25, he’s talking about this little horn, and he says:

Daniel 7:25   “he shall speak pompous words.”

This is Daniel 7 verse 25.  Twenty-one going back to the, well, actually, let’s go to 21 first, where, and this shocks me to read, I mean, when I think about it, to me it’s still shocking, verse 21.

Verse 21 (Daniel says) “I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them.”

Now, we believe, and I believe, that God will always deliver us.  We have trials, God will always deliver us.  We’ll never have more than we can handle.  But the Bible speaks of a period of time where it does say that Satan will triumph over the saints for a while.  Prevail, not destroy them, obviously, in that sense, but will prevail.  Now that’s a scary thought.  You want to be protected; you want a hedge built around you, and again, I believe that God does protect us.  What does this mean, that this little horn prevails against the saints?  In verse 25:

Verse 25  “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High.”

That’s in the New King James.  In the King James it says “and shall wear out the saints.”

Now, what does that mean…”wear them out”?  That implies a period of time; it doesn’t happen overnight.  You get worn out.  We can think of it physically, but if you look at this word, it’s an interesting word.  It’s the only place it’s found in scripture.  It’s actually from the Chaldean language.  And the word here is Bela and it always means mental anguish or torture, anxiety, mentally worn down.  It’s not physical; it’s mental.  Stress, tired, maybe, of doing what is right.  Tired of many trials and difficulties.  It’s proven to be Satan’s ploy and his strategy against God’s people.  Wear them out.  Satan has plenty of time.  You and I have a limited lifetime.  That explains to some degree, how over a period of time, we can be worn out.  We can begin to drift away, because it’s just too hard.

Matthew chapter 11.  Christ also said something that seems rather strange and even today it’s maybe a little bit difficult to understand, but if you put it in the context…Matthew chapter 11 verse 12, where Jesus Christ said:

Matthew 11:12  “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Now, there are a couple of ways of looking at that.  Obviously, people were persecuted; people were killed; violence occurred.  But it says “the violent will take it by force.”  Are we saying that people who are out killing people are going to be in the kingdom, or will take the kingdom?  Are we not saying…is Christ not telling them this is the kind of effort you have to put into it?  The kingdom of God is not something you’re just going to slide into with not a lot of difficulties.  You know, as a child growing up and beginning to learn some of the things that you learned about the future, you know, you really want to have this perfect life and this perfect little cocoon, have your family, live to be 120, and die in your sleep, and you’re in the Kingdom of God.  You know, that’s what you want.  And you realize, well, no, it’s not going to be quite that easy.  In fact, Christ said, the violent take it by force.  You must put all your effort and all your energy into the Kingdom of God.  That’s what God is looking for.  That’s what Jesus Christ wants from us.  Apathy is, maybe, our greatest enemy, and it leads to drifting, drifting away. 

Well, think about drifting.  Think about this concept from a spiritual perspective…spiritual drifting.  Let me give you a few facts about drifting.  These are not, you know, some great gems of wisdom, but they do describe drifting.  First of all, drifting requires no effort.  Drifting requires no effort; just stop rowing.  Let your boat move along with the current, considering from a boat perspective.  So drifting doesn’t require any effort.  You can put no effort into obeying God, into being a part of the Church and helping, serving, whatever that may mean, and it can go on for years, and you can drift, but if you are, drifting further away.  Drifting requires no effort.

Second one, you never drift upstream.  You never drift upstream.  Doesn’t happen.  Gravity won’t let it happen.  You never drift upstream.  You never drift to a higher standard.  You always drift to a lower standard.   Whatever you’re talking about…morality, you know, you name it. Whatever it is, you drift downstream.  You never drift upstream.  

It’s also a fact that drifting is dangerous to others around you.  Dangerous to others around you.  In Ephesians 4, verse 14, the apostle Paul warns the Ephesians not to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.  Doctrine can cause drifting, but it’s more likely that it causes, I mean, again, if you, as an individual, or any individual, determines some doctrinal concept that means so much to that person, okay, fine.  But it causes, or affects, other people, even if it’s some very strange or odd idea that’s clearly unbiblical.  It affects other people around you, because they then begin to maybe have a concern or a question. Now maybe it isn’t, and in a lot of times, it isn’t.  But the point being that we affect other people.  If we are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, our drifting can cause others to drift as well.

What are the causes of drifting…spiritual drifting?  What would you say the causes are?  Let me give you a few causes for individual drifting; then I want to talk about “church drifting” or how we could drift as an organization or an organized body.  

First of all, personal drifting.  Personal drifting often occurs once these signs show up:  Number one is diminishing desire to study God’s Word.  Doesn’t happen in one day, but over a period of time a diminished desire to study God’s Word is a sign of drifting, or certainly will lead to drifting.  The apostle Paul made it very clear to Timothy in 2 Timothy verse 2 when he said:

2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved.”

In the New King James it’s, you know, “be diligent” but study to show yourself approved, a good workman.  Study.  The word there, and the Greek word is spoudazo which means not just reading, but it means studying, with a diligent effort.  Instead of drifting, you’re studying.

Secondarily, (again, these are not something that you couldn’t figure out yourself probably)…a diminishing desire to pray.  A diminishing desire to pray.  You look out at the world today, you look at your own life, your own family.  How can we, again I speak rhetorically, how can we as Christians let a single day go by that we aren’t praying to God earnestly?  The apostle Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17:

1 Thessalonians 5:17  “Pray without ceasing.” 

One of the shortest verses in the New Testament.  Pray without ceasing.  A diminished desire to pray…days go by, weeks go by.  It’s a part of that drifting that can occur.

Thirdly, diminishing desire to be with God’s people.  Diminishing desire to be with God’s people.  We offer today a service, and it’s a wonderful service for people who are ill, and people who need to stay home.  They can watch a service today over the internet.  That’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.  But yesterday I taught the class in Foundation Institute on the Sabbath, and you read throughout the entire Old Testament and you really find there are two overriding principles about the Sabbath and how we approach it.  Number one is that we don’t work and we rest.  That’s number one. Very clear.  Then number two is we worship.  It’s called the holy Sabbath day, the Sabbath day of the Lord.  It is time to worship.  Now, can you worship at home?  Of course you can.  As I said, our family did it for ten years.  But isn’t there a part of worship that expects or anticipates interaction?  Isn’t there something there?

Hebrews 10:25 – you know it well.  

Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.”

Diminished desire to be with God’s people on the Sabbath and worship with them can lead to drifting. 

A diminishing desire for preaching the Gospel.  Not that we shouldn’t be taking care of the Church, as we certainly should, and not that the gospel is solely a warning message.  If it is the true Gospel it is a message of hope and a light in a very darkened world.  At some point we have to look ourselves in the mirror and say you know, God wants people in His family.  Do I want people in His family?  And how will they hear the message?  A diminished desire for any of that.

And then number five:  An increasing interest and involvement in the society around us.

1 John 2:15 “Love not the world or the things in the world.”

It talks about the love of the world, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life all as things that will take you away from God.

You know, you look at the world today, and I’ve done this, maybe you’ve done it as well, where sometimes you’ll just leave the news on and maybe even on a Friday evening to leave the news on for a while, but I just found, well it doesn’t really make me feel very good going into the Sabbath.  Now again, we watch the news, we want to see what’s going on, but it’s just over and over again the political system that we are in.  I know my wife was telling me just the other day, she goes she’ll be at home and she’ll just have the news on most of the day, she says, “I just have to turn it off because it is so divisive; it is so hateful, it is, I mean, everything contrary to God is there.”  Again, not that we don’t watch or pay attention, but that system, the political system of this world isn’t the answer to the problems of our country or the problems of the world.

What about church drifting?  What are the signs that we would identify of a church that is drifting?  Again, these are not rocket science; these are pretty simple.  Churches drift when they fail to pass on the truth to successive generations.  Churches drift when they fail to pass on the truth to successive generations.  We have a responsibility, a moral responsibility, a Godly responsibility, a Christian responsibility to pass on this truth to the next generation.  If we don’t, then shame on us.  What they do with it is going to be their decision.  We should never be ashamed or timid in teaching what we believe.  It is right; it is real; it is right knowledge.  We must be committed to passing it on to the next generation.  And we can ask ourselves, well how are we doing with that?  How well have we done that in the last sixty years?

Number two.  Churches drift when they move away from their foundational doctrines.  Paul in 2 Timothy 3 spoke of having a “form of godliness.”  You can have a form of godliness.  Sometimes we take the approach, well, they keep the Sabbath and the holy days; therefore it must be the Church of God.  Never mind that, you know, if they abuse--whoever that may be abuses his family, or her family, or you know, is drunk half the time, or whatever, they keep the Sabbath and the holy days.  Those are not all the foundational principles upon which the Church should stand.  Drifting away from your foundational doctrines.

Number three.  Churches drift when they fail to train new leaders.  Age catches up with everyone.  Where will the new leaders come from?  The church of God is very clear.  New leaders come from within the church.  This is where they come.  They are sitting in congregations around the world today.  Shame on us if we don’t train new leaders.

Number four.  Churches drift because their leadership drifts.  Cook said in his book “Organizations don’t drift; only their leaders drift.”  It goes on to say “there is a backsliding in the pulpit before there is a backsliding in the pew.”  And there’s truth to that, and we must be very cautious and careful when it comes to leadership.

Then number five.  Churches drift when there is a lack of vision.  

Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision the people perish.”

Vision without action is nothing more than a dream.  Action without vision simply passes time.  Vision with action can change the world.  Why does the Church exist?  Why is Christ building the Church?  What is it to do if it isn’t to be central in changing the world?  Absolutely amazing. 

So what’s the conclusion to all of this?  Let me give you what I consider the conclusion, hopefully helpful things that we can all do as we move forward.  Looking back but moving forward.  We must ask God to search our hearts and show us the way.  It is presumptuous of any of us to believe that we have it all figured out.  We can all be guilty of spiritual drifting and not know it.  It’s like the boat going over the dam.  It happens so slowly.  It’s just like our society is not the same as it was in November of 1963.  The age of innocence died.  We are a very different world today.  Can we say the Church as it began the Radio Church of God in October of 1933 –  is that body different today?  Again, that’s not bad.  We’re different; we grow; we develop.  But one could say that we’re now in the fourth generation.  The greatest challenge for Christians is not the understanding of new truth, but holding on to the faith once delivered.  Not drifting away, either individually or as an organization.  It’s easy to do, especially as the years pile up.

What should you do?  What should I do?  Let me give you some thoughts, some very simple things, but hopefully are significant when it comes to what scripture tells us.

Number one.  We must always keep rowing.  You cannot drift if you’re rowing.  We must always keep rowing; we have to keep doing, we have to keep on.  There is no time to quit.  There is no time to stop.  Adversity, difficulty, problems, issues, whatever you want to call them, must never stop us from rowing.

Number two.  You always need to watch out for the undercurrents.  There’s the old saying that goes like this, you know:  “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but nary will a word hurt me.”  It just isn’t true.  We can create division and we can create all sorts of undercurrents just by words we say.  And words we say today can go all over the world in a matter of seconds.  And maybe it’s not true.  What does that do?  What does that do?  Watch out for the undercurrents.

Number three.  Expect that you will have to stand against the tide.  Expect it.  Here’s a little story that kind of illustrates that.  It says, “When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.  I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.  When I found I couldn’t change my nation, I began to focus on my community.  When I couldn’t change my community, I decided to change my family.  When I couldn’t change my family, as an old man I finally realized that the only thing I could change was myself.  But by changing myself I could impact my family.  By impacting my family I could be a light to my community, and by being a light to my community I could influence my nation.  And by influencing my nation, I could change the world.  But I must change myself.”

And then number four.  Make sure you have a good anchor.  Hebrews 6 verse 16 mentions that the hope for the future is the anchor upon which we must hold onto.  It’s the anchor that holds the ship in place.  It is the truth that keeps you and me coming back.  It isn’t people, necessarily.  It isn’t even because of, you know, usually the ministry.  It’s because it’s the truth.  It is the anchor that holds you from drifting.

As a church and as individuals, we must fight against the spiritual drift that will always be there.  The world will always be beckoning to us.  The first day you walked onto the grounds of the property just a few miles west of here, you felt it.  I remember very clearly the first Feast of Tabernacles, walking into the metal building, the building that tonight the dinner will be in.  And it was electric.  It was electric.  I have never seen nor felt anything like that in my life.  There was not only a buzz in that metal building, but it was electric.  And everything that was said was electrifying.  It was home.  It was the people of God.  It was God’s Holy Spirit.  Can you recall the zeal that brought us all together?  Nothing can destroy the Church, but we can individually and collectively drift if we’re not careful.  Laodicea didn’t happen overnight.  It happened over time.  It was the result of spiritual drifting, in my opinion.  Personally and collectively we must fight it.  We’ve come too far to drift now.  The world today is on the edge of a transformation.  By the year 2020 it is estimated that 85% of the world will be on the internet.  Today it’s 34%.  That’s five billion people by 2020.  If Facebook were a country, it would today be the third largest country in the world and fast approaching number two with over 1 billion people on Facebook.

In order for the apostle Paul to have spoken to a million people, he would have been required to speak to a hundred people every day seven days a week for thirty years to reach a million.  There are one billion plus people connected on Facebook in some fashion.  Recently a technical engineer put together an app that’s called the Faces of Facebook.  It’s a page where you can go and every picture over one billion people are on this page in a mosaic.  Now it’s all…it looks like a pattern, you’ve seen these before, you can’t make anything out, of course, but you hold your cursor over it and it will pop out and you’ll see a page.  These are people number 985,000 and over 1 billion faces in this particular app that are shown but not only that, you take your cursor off the screen and there’s a ticker that’s ticking away at how many people are joining Facebook and the end of it is going so fast you can’t even tell.  And within a short period of time the number of people on Facebook will surpass the population of India.  In theory, you could sit down at a laptop computer, the apostle Paul would have taken thirty years and you could in theory reach a billion people.  In theory.  I’m not saying it would work because they are probably not listening.  But you could.  The world is on the edge of transformation, especially in communication.  2020 is seven years away.  There is no time to drift.  There is no time to get away from where we once were.  If indeed we have.  Hopefully we haven’t.  Who knows what God will yet do with us if we yield to Him and hold to His truth and His values?  The scripture says it well.  

“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”