Drift - a slow continuous movement away from God.
10 Signs of spiritual drift:
1. Your communion with God is waning or non-existent.
2. Your prayers have become, at best, a “laundry list” of wants.
3. When you read the Bible it is dull and meaningless.
4. Your church engagement is sporadic and lifeless.
5. You’ve faded away from your small group.
6. You’ve lost accountability.
7. Relationships, in general, have become shallow and uninspiring.
8. Your anxiety level is on the rise.
9. Your morality is slipping or tanked.
10. You are hurtling through life without meaning.
Our aim in this series is to bring a halt to the drift. To reel you back in. To re-engage you in the pursuit of God.
We want to help restore your faith to what it used to be…and more!
In short – I want to get you back. We’ve got some help from one book of the bible in particular Hebrews.
Hebrews 10:23 page 1015
To help get you back here are the steps we’ve explored so far:
Step one then in getting you back Barry highlighted back in week 2:
So let us do our best to enter into (God’s rest). But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. Hebrews 4:11
· note the phrase let us do our best…or in other words…there are some choices you are going to have to make
o Barry called it the path of “yes” … it is the path of obedience
o getting you back is not something that will happen accidently
o you’re not going to suddenly wake up and find yourself in a good place spiritually again
o Ending your drift is a willful “yes-full” set of choices moving in the right direction…in other words, to some extent, it’s on you.
Last week Amy showed us one of those clear yes-full choices to end our drift is simply to pray.
…let us go right into the presence of God…Hebrews 10:22
Pray. listen. Communicate
Because of Jesus we have direct access to our Heavenly Father so why don’t we take advantage of it? Amy Christie
So, today,…let’s look at another crucial step in restoring your faith to what it used to be…
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Hebrews 10:23-25
Here it is in a nutshell: Find the right people who will help bring you back.
You know this …right?
· this is actually part of your problem right? You’ve lost, or maybe never had, some crucial relationships in your life.
· 4 of the ten signs actually are about the demise of relationships:
Signs of drift:
Your church engagement is sporadic and lifeless.
You’ve faded away from your small group.
You’ve lost accountability.
Relationships, in general, have become shallow and uninspiring.
This is a no brainer…You need to re-engage with the right people! But, What do the right people look like?
Social media has given us this idea that we should all have a posse of friends when in reality, if we have one or two really good friends, we are lucky. Brene Brown
Maybe Piglet knows the kind of person who can help you back…
“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”
―A.A. Milne,The House at Pooh Corner
You need people in your life you can be sure of! People who, you know, will help restore your faith in God!
People like those implied in this passage we just read:
Hebrews 10:23 - Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
· a person who restores your hope in God
· a person or people who is not spiritually waffling
· I’m talking about a person who has been through the fire, been broken, has tested faith in God and in the end still clings like mad…holds tightly to the hope we affirm.
· you need a strong godly friend or two…people you can be sure of.
This kind of person is hard to come by these days..the vast overwhelming majority of so-called Christians are anything but…
· Moral Therapeutic Deism – we reinvent God to make him more convenient to our drifting. (be good, feel good, God is distant)
o You don’t need people in your life who believe God is distant.
o You don’t need people in your life who just turn to God to feel better
o You don’t need people in your life who just think we need to better people
o You don’t need people in your life who are agnostic about God.
If you are drifting: you need a person who will tell you that (Vs. 23) God can be trusted to keep his promises!
· Someone who knows this beyond theory
· Someone who knows because God helped them when they drifted
· Someone who knows because in their darkest hours God was there.
You need a person who isn’t afraid to put an arm around your shoulder and says this kind of stuff to you repeatedly…
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. 1 Corinthians 10:13
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
You need that kind of person in your life… a promise reminder!
I’m just saying that you should….
Find the right people who will help bring you back.
Here’s another type of person that is right for you to help you end your drift…
10: 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
You need the right people in your life who will provoke you to do something…get in the game…serve, love, give.
· part of your problem is that you have allowed life to overwhelm you and you are just hurtling through life…scratching the surface of your potential and your calling.
o you aren’t loving, serving, or giving…you are just surviving.
The right people call us out and point us to where we can touch other’s lives…
Interesting this word motivate = a very strong word for a sharp contention, provocation = implies a stern rebuke
So, I’m picturing the kind of things the right person will say to you to provoke you to love:
· they call you out…”hey, get a clue…it’s not all about you. Get your eyes off yourself.”
· dude…look at me…you have a lot to offer others!
· girl…you complain an awful lot. So life is so hard…how about you jump back in and love some people!
· hey…you know that in the last 45 minutes you haven’t taken a breath…you haven’t once asked about me or anyone else and all you do is talk about yourself!
Now, THAT’S the right person for your life…to shake you up, kick your behind, get you back in the game.
Find the right people who will help bring you back.
10:25 - let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but…
The right people will reengage you in community. The right person pays attention to the way you have stopped connecting with others or church…
And boy, do we need these kinds of people in your lives because we are drifting mightily from church and community:
· Listen to these numbers: Grace Kids we have 2088 on our roster. In the last 4 months, 6 children came every weekend , 8% came three or four weekends . 22% (460) came two weekends a month. 47% came four or less times in the 4 months . 25% came only once .
o No wonder why so many are drifting! And by staying away from the church gathered you are not only causing your own drift but you are helping your kids drift too!
· the sad thing is that you’ve duped yourself into believing it isn’t as bad as it looks… It’s called the halo effect. Everybody thinks their attendance is better than it really is.
o A friend, and Grace attendee and church consultant - Our attendance I pulled from the GKC check in records... Which would be accurate for us. In 2015, his son attended 70.5% of weekends.
“I wasn’t surprised. I was shocked”.
And it’s not just church attendance that is waning…relational connections of any kind are be dropped with regularity.
· 1 out of 4 (25%) (Duke university) of Americans who have no close friends to confide
· the number of Americansliving aloneis higher than at any point in history.
the impact of this is staggering:
· UCLA researchers report that chronically lonely people may be at higher risk for certain types of inflammatory disease because their feelings of social isolation trigger the activity of pro-inflammatory immune cells.
· John’s Hopkins school of public health published: lonely, drifting people are more likely to die than those connected
· Psychology today: In fact, evidence has been growing that when our need for social relationships is not met, we fall apart mentally and even physically.
o to excess amounts of stresshormones.
o eroding our arteries,
o creating high blood pressure
o undermining learning andmemory.
o increase in dementia
o And of course…spiritual drift
You need someone who will take you by the hand and say come to church with us! Join our small group! Will you follow me as I follow Jesus!
Find the right people who will help bring you back.
Finally…
Hebrews 10:25 - encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
· Note: “the day”…was always understood as ominous (tough times)
We need someone to come along side us in the toughest of times.
· encourage = the word used to describe the Holy Spirit…it means to come along side…HS = the one who comes along side.
So, yes, you need the Junior Holy Spirit in your life… listen to how Jesus describes the H.S….and how it uncannily describes the kindo f person you need iny our life!
There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. John 16:12-14
You need an encourager.
You need one who remind you of the trustworthiness of God.
You need someone who will get you back into relationships.
You need a person who will not put up with your nonsense and get you back to your calling.
My friend…if you are drifting…
Find the right people who will help bring you back.
So…allow me to be the Junior Holy spirit for a moment and make a strong suggestion – be baptized!