Don't Drift

Hmm. Don't drift! You know what I'm talking about? No. Everybody looks out there like, what are you talking about? In our neighborhood, in town, at a live in Deerfield Beach, we live towards the end of the block, and there's a cul-de-sac with a big turnaround. And we have some young guys that love to take their cars there and do what they call drifting, where they go as fast as they can with the brake pulled so their car goes this way and this way, and they can still keep it in the mood. It's kind of like for you who grew up in in North and had a lot of snow when you start spinning out and you just love to just drive anyway. Well, they do it intentionally, and they usually leave half of their tires on our road. But that's not the kind of drift I'm talking about, because that drift is very important today. All the young people, so many with a car, like to do that. But I'm not going to be talking about that today. Perhaps if you've ever had a boat and let it get away from you. Anybody ever done that? Oh, there's one, two, three. Everybody who had a boat just slowly gets away or you didn't tie it into the anchor good enough or something happens and you sit starts drifting away. And that's kind of what I'm talking about today.

But it entails us. You will go with me. I'll be using the New Living Translation here to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 2, because it's talking about drift, drifting away. In the New Living Translation, Hebrews 2, verse 1, I do want to welcome our guests today. I didn't know if you did that or not. Couldn't tell. But we appreciate you coming today. Now that nobody's online, still don't have internet, huh? I've got to work on that one. Financially, I think I'll have to work on that one. Verse 1, so we must listen very carefully to the truth. Do we? Do you? To the truth we have heard, or we may drift away. Drift away, kind of like that boat that can just drift away from the truth when we know the truth and next thing you know, you're not watching yourself, you're not watching these things, and pretty soon your mind drifts, kind of like it's doing right now during the sermon. Your mind may be drifting to Croatia or to a boat or to what happened this week. It's easy! Drifting is easy. In fact, it's sometimes very relaxing, isn't it? Maybe you're like a piece of driftwood. You know, we use driftwood here, don't we? Well, people use it to even dress up their house. It's kind of unique down here by the water, and that can happen, and we like it. Sometimes we could just want to be that piece of wood and just get away from everything as I did this week on my tractor. I put my phone up and found out, you know, there is life without a phone. There is life without a cell phone, and it is nice. But let's finish this. We may drift away for the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. What's he talking about? Angels! Ah! Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? The angels came to warn. Verse 3, so what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Himself and then delivered to us by those who heard Him speak? Hmm. Is that first and foremost in your mind? As it's easy. I want to go back to chapter 1, verse 14. I don't think David has this one, but let's go up to a verse just before chapter 2 that I think is important. I touched on it this morning, but I think it's very important for us to touch on. It says, Therefore, angels are only servants, ministering spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. That's talking about you. The world's time is later. We know from the holy days we understand that. That's going to give everybody a chance of salvation. It's just that's why they're called first fruits. You have to put up with this world right now.

But the angels are, and it's interesting here, because in the New King James it's ministering spirits. The angels are ministering spirits to help you obtain salvation. What did they have to do this week? Some of you may make them work really hard. I try not to, but I still do. I'm sure they do a lot of work on my behalf. Ministering spirits.

It's interesting, as I brought out this morning also, about these ministering spirits, because the Hebrew word for angels is malek, and it means messengers. Messengers! So not only are they ministering spirits, they're delivering messages. Who do you think they're delivering messages to? To us? Do you think the elevator only goes one way? Do you think those ministering spirits, those malek, those messengers are delivering messages to God about you?

And how often do they have to make the trip? Lee's at it again! He's there to try to help you. As a matter of fact, Christ even talks about your angel before the face of God. So is he talking about your personal angel? It sure sounds like that.

When you eventually meet your angel, will he look at you and go, man, are you a lot of problems? You know how many trips I had to make delivering to God what you were up to? And I'm trying to help you, and then you're just like, think about it.

It's a lot to think about.

The angels are there, as the scriptures say, and if I can add just a little bit to it, they're there to help us, keep us from drifting, drifting away from God. Because that's the easiest thing in the world, too, because you had the whole world pulling you over here. And they're trying to pull you back to God, keeping you safe, and telling God probably, she needs a lot more of your spirit. Can you give her a lot more? Because I'm tired, and typically angels don't get tired, but we found one of them in the Old Testament battled so much that he needed help. Hopefully that's not any of your angel story. But think about it. This word, drift, checked it out in two or three different dictionaries.

That's an interesting story. I don't want to digress too much. But I read a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte this week, and it actually talked about a dictionary. I'm going, I didn't know they had dictionaries back then. Well, they did, all the way back to 1604. They could find some type of dictionary 3,000 years ago. But I looked up in the dictionary because I wanted to know what the word for drift, since we're not supposed to do it, so we won't drift away. Do we really understand that word? So let me give you a couple. Moving slowly. Boy, don't we ever do. You know, we move so slowly that we don't even see that we're sometimes drifting, whether it's the Sabbath or whether it's other things in our lives, whether it's watching things we shouldn't be watching. Just a few minutes. And then next thing you know, you're like, wow, didn't know one TV show in an hour could put that many f-words before me. It happens? Next thing you know, you get used to it. I know for 34 years, I work construction. Hey, guys? You hear every word that could ever be said, and they are used as nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives. I mean, every which way? And they can put four of them in a sentence. Okay? That's the way it is. So we know how that can happen. But it says, moving slowly, usually without control of direction, carried along by natural forces and or circumstances. Boy, that describes a drift. And everyone in here has drifted. We hope something pulls us back.

But we've also known people that never got pulled back, never pulled themselves back. And they've gone way out. And they drifted too far to come back.

We've all seen that. That's what God wants us to avoid. That's what this sermon's about today, about not drifting. So we're going to go to, if you will, join me in the book of Revelation. Everybody always goes, oh, I love Revelation. Oh, Revelation, Revelation, Revelation, Revelation, Revelation, Revelation. We get to hear all this stuff. And I put on a sermon, and those views are two times, three times, or anything else is. So why don't we get more of those? Let's go to a part of Revelation that we may not want to hear about. Join me in Revelation 3. The story of the churches, the bad churches, the good churches, and then the really bad churches. Now, I'm not comparing you and Fort Lauderdale to one of these churches. I'm not doing... We'll do that next week when the internet's on. So let's go and see about this drift, because it's out there, and it's going to happen to us. And it happened to one of the churches in the past, and also this is symbolic of the attitude of people. And these seven attitudes are pretty much in all the churches today. We've got people of every attitude. Oh, yes. Well, it doesn't say very much about your preaching then, does it, preacher? Well, not my fault. Oh, I love her.

Remind the Home Office of that if they call you. Let's go! Let's go to Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14. And to the angel of the church of Laodicean. Right. These things says the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Oh, I get a kick out of that one. The beginning of the talking about Jesus Christ here, the beginning of God's new creation. And I've seen that before. People have brought it to, well, do you know that Jesus Christ is a creative being? Oh, and here's the Scripture. No, He's eternal. I am. I am. Just I don't want to go that. But I just love because they bring this Scripture up to me all the time. No, He's a creative. No, He's eternal. He's always existing, always will exist. But it's talking about if you actually read this from the New Living Translation. That is a New Living Translation. The beginning of God's new creation. Yeah, I use that there. Yes, there's an asterisk there because it does. That's not what it means, so you can see. Yes, that's why I married her.

Somebody, almost 40-something years. But let's go to verse 15. I know your works. This is to the church. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. That's what Christ is saying to the church. I wish you were passionate, not just, you know, haven't we all dated somebody that way? That you were maybe passionate about, and they were kind of like, meh, you know, you like to go out this week? I don't know.

You know, this is a relationship that God has with His church, with us, and He says, I want you hot. I want you to say, would you like? Yes! That's what God wants to see. And this is what His Son died for. That's what He knows. So let's go. Verse 16. So then, because you are lukewarm, neither hot, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Spit you out of my mouth. I'm reading from the New King James. You know the difference between spitting something out and vomiting out. Have you ever had food poisoning?

You don't just spit it out. It's just like, whoa, what's happening? Something's leaving my body in such a way.

This is what God says. You can eat something, and it's so repulsive that your whole body rejects it and throws it out, vomits it, spews it out. This is what God said He's going to do to these people, because He's a passionate God, and He expects the same from us.

I will vomit you out of my mouth. What happened? When's the last time you vomit? Anybody remember the last time? Yes, stomach virus. What else? Anything else? Yes, very much so. You know what happened? You were sick. Your body is rejecting. Your body is sick. Here, God is telling us, you're spiritually sick. You are spiritually sick.

You need to check up. You need to get a doctor. And I got the cure. I reckon He's going to give us a cure right here. But we have to know that.

Verse 17, because you say, here's why you're sick, because you say, I'm rich. Oh, I am so rich. I don't need anything from God. I wouldn't mind something from God, but I don't really need His Word. I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Oh, that's pretty descriptive. Gives you five points. He just didn't tell you what's wrong with you. He told you five things about what's wrong with you. That's what this is. That is what will happen to cause you to drift away from God. And you will, because of this. Of all the churches, this is like as bad as it gets.

And He's trying to explain. You want to be described as this? Keep drifting. Tell me you don't need Him. I've read this book for 50 years. I know it. Don't need to read it again. I don't need help, God. I can take care of this. I don't need you to tell me, even though my subconscious is telling me I don't need to be doing this, I've got grace. Hmm, okay, grace. Let me use my grace card here. It's like my master card here. God, take this one for this thing. That's why God said, I don't really want sacrifice.

Even though He installs sacrifices, He's saying to us, no. I don't want you to try to buy your way out of this thing.

You are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked. Think about that.

Wouldn't you hate if somebody described you that way? Now, we look at the Bible and you see some people that they never drifted. I can't find where they drifted. They were so strong, and that's what we need to be. That's what He wants from us. That's how we are lights. That's how we fulfill His destiny for us is to be this. Because you remember Joseph? Read the book of Genesis. There's more words written about Joseph in the book of Genesis than anybody else. More than Abraham, more than Jacob. It's Joseph. Did Joseph ever drift? No. No. As a matter of fact, it says, was it? How is it described? Miserable, blind, wretched? No. It describes him as handsome in form and appearance. He walked in the room. Everybody in my wife, every woman in here and my wife, too, would turn to look at him. Wow, that's a specimen. Doesn't mean you have to lust him, but it's like, oh, that's what he's like. But the thing was, as good-looking, handsome in form and appearance, he was that on the inside, too. He was so strong. I mean, even a woman who's half-dressed tried to seduce him and nobody would know. He said, no. No. No. And he ran.

And he didn't do anything, and he paid a price and went to prison for it.

He never drifted even there. It was his chance to say, God, look, why did you allow this to happen to me? I didn't even touch her. I was doing it. But he didn't. He didn't drift. He knew God would take care of him. What an example for us. It is for me. He'd take Daniel. You remember Daniel? What does it say about Daniel? In Daniel 5 and 11, he says, he's a man of light and understanding and wisdom. Like the wisdom of the gods is how people outside of his direct party thought of him. That's how the powers that be said about him. Huh? Like the wisdom of the gods, excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding. That was Daniel. You think he drifted?

Even when they grabbed that big old pussycat and threw him in with them? You know, those 700-800 lions, tigers, whatever they wore. He threw him in there, right? He was a good kitty. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, lick my hand. He didn't worry. He didn't drift. You may say, well, you might have seen him shaking like a leaf when they threw him in there. No. What happened when he didn't get thrown in, but the ones who had him thrown in there happened? They never even reached the floor before those lions ate him up. You think he hadn't seen that before? That's no drift. Then we have in the New Testament a man named Stephen Stephon, one of the deacons, the seven deacons appointed when the church first started.

How does it tell about him? What does it say about him? Well, he gives a short version of the entire history of the people of God off top of his head. He didn't have a... Let me check myself. Here we go. Yeah, no. He could just say it. He just did it. And what did the Bible say about it? Well, he's cold. He's not hot. He's not cold. He's just kind of... Luke 1. No. He said he's a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, full of faith and the Holy Spirit. That is only said about a few people in the entire Bible, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Why could God give him full, the full measure of the Holy Spirit? Because I don't have that much. Still, God, it's because of his faith. He was full of faith, and God said, I can give you that. I can give you as much. What did he do? He fulfilled his destiny, even to his death. Don't forget them. They don't know what they're doing as a stone is being marched over his head and thrown it down on him.

What an example. No drift. And then we have what? We have Anna. Remember Anna? Oh, yes. Now that's a woman. She waited. She got a promise. She wanted to see the Messiah. She was 84 years old. She didn't drift, even when her husband died. She said, wait up. She didn't drift. And she prayed. It says she prayed and she fasted.

She would see him. God gave her that. She's not a woman who who drifted away because she got pulled away by the world. Remember, I beg to say, she served God with prayer and fasting night and day.

Pretty powerful. No drift. So why do I bring these people? Because it can happen. This is real. We can do it. You can do it. See, Nike didn't come up with that theme.

God came up with that theme. You can do it. Just do it.

Stay away from drifting. Have the power.

So these people were so unlike the Laodiceans who had God's Spirit. But they were drifting away. So I looked up these words. Wretched. I'll go through these really fast. Wretched. Okay, because we have to know what we are if we're part of this. You really want to know, don't you? Don't you really want to know what it is and see if any of this matches you? Okay, now you don't have to raise your hand. Well, it said, Wretched, it's a state of misery, unhappy, distressed.

Hit a nerve there yet? Okay, miserable, extremely sad, heartbroken, unpleasant, poor, you're broke, destitute, needy, impoverished, penniless, blind, sightless, refusing to notice, and naked, exposed, bare, without closer covering. Now, I just gave those because I want to look at this. To check out the spiritual state, to see if you are sick. See if you are spiritually sick. I happen to have this amazing thing. Anybody know what this is?

It's a thermometer. You take this when you're sick, right? This is a spiritual thermometer. Would you believe that if I told you that? I didn't say it was, I asked you the question. If I'm sick, I... Okay, here and there. Just a little bit.

I'm not sick. Wouldn't you like to hear that from God? Wouldn't you like to have one of these? You do. It's part of the Holy Spirit. And it won't tell you a lie. They'll tell you where you're at.

Let's look at the spiritual state, then. Let's look at this state. Let's do the first one and take your thermometer out. Wretched! Wretched!

Are you? Are you wretched? Because I want to ask you that question because I want to I want to paraphrase. I don't want to go to the dictionary, but I'm a... Are you an unhappy person? Only you can answer that. Are you an unhappy person? Are you miserable?

Because if you are, you're wretched. Because God gave you His Holy Spirit. He's giving you blessings. He's giving you angels to look after you. He's giving you all these things. He just says, ask, ask. So this is that thermometer. You have to take your temperature. If you're miserable, you need to do something about it.

You can change it. You say, well, you don't know my condition. Well, God does. I don't have to know your condition. God knows your condition. If you're a miserable and unhappy person, you know what's happened? You've drifted. You've drifted from God.

Second one. Miserable. You ever met miserable people?

Sad thing is miserable people like to hang around miserable people so they can make more miserable people. Miserable man marries a miserable woman, they're going to make miserable kids. Okay? Right? When you hang around miserable people, you're going to be miserable. It's going to rub off on you. It's like tar. And our guys who use tar on the roof know you can plan to put it right there, but it's going to show up over here. And you don't even walk over there, and you don't know why, but it's over there. That's what it is. And that is what happens.

And there's one thing that miserable people are. This is another spiritual thermometer. They're negative people. They're negative people. And they're not happy being negative people unless they can make you a negative person. That's just what it is.

Oh, did you see that beautiful dress she was wearing? Oh yeah, but it doesn't really fit her. The color is not good for her. No, it's like this. I mean, no matter what you say, somebody that's negative, that's miserable, they're not happy in their own skin. So they are going to be negative about everybody else's skin. Because sometimes they don't like. I used to work with a guy. He was so negative about everything. And the guys would come in. We'd have a great day or whatever. No, he just had to bring something up that happened that wasn't good. He couldn't help it. We were too happy. He had to take us down. And he would do it almost. I was so glad when the company fired him. Then he finally had something to be negative about.

So these are the things that we have to measure.

Check the degree. See how sick you really are. Because if you have all these, it's going to be hard to come back because you've drifted so far away. But we all experienced some of these a little bit. Well, we pull ourselves back. We go to the anchor.

Are you miserable? Wretched? And then there's the next one. Poor. Are you poor? Well, no. We're one of the richest countries in the world.

I don't need anything. I'm doing fine. But spiritually, he's talking about what your life looks like.

And you're pitiful. You're poor and you don't know it. You got holes in your pants and you can't see it. You're needy. Are you needy?

Do you need just to talk to people? Do you need to complain to people? Because it ties into the negative. Do you need somebody to talk to to tell you all your problems to you instead of God? God wants to hear about your problems. Does he already know it? Yes, but he wants to hear it. He's the one you talk to. He is the one if you're needy you go to and say, God, I need this. You can even tell him you're once.

He knows even your heart's desires, for you even ask. But here he describes the people in the church are poor. They're needy. They've drifted.

They need God and they don't know it. I've counseled people. Had problems. One particular individual. Not here, since his church is perfect. But I'm Vought Lauderdale. And he had these problems. And I went down and I spent time with him. And I spent time, time. He had left the church. He had left understanding and came back 30 years later. And he goes, I just can't study the Bible. I said, Yes, we can. Yes, you can. I'll come over. And I read and I said, Now you read. He said, I don't want to. He said, I just can't. I just, I don't want to. And then I was explaining his problems. I said, Here's the reason. You've been so far away. Now you come back that this doesn't seem natural to you. Brethren, does this seem natural to you? Does this feel natural to you? Opening this book and reading it. Is it part of you? If not, you drift it. You drift it. This is where we need to turn to. No matter your condition, that is what poor means.

And then the fourth one is blind. Are you blind? Spiritually blind. Like he was, you really couldn't see and you couldn't understand. And I remember when I told him, I didn't want him coming to church anymore.

He was upset. And this is after months of spending time with him. Months of reading, praying with him. He couldn't pray. He said, I just, I don't feel months, months. How long do you keep this up? I just finally had a rig. You don't want it. You've drifted so far away. I said, you can't. And he said, why not? I said, because you're a racist.

You look brethren who are darker than you, whether it's Hispanic or black. And you talk to them like they're dogs at church. I've heard you. But when I walk around, you're just like. So I can't. I can't solve. You've got such a rot in you that I can't get it out. And you don't want God to get it out. So guess what? I don't want you to church. I don't want you coming to church in six months or a year. Call me. And if you've made some changes, willing to, but I can't have you infect the church. You're doing it. So he left and went to another church. His wife called me because his wife actually liked me a lot because I tried to help him treat her better because he was an abusive man, too.

In many ways. And he was a big guy. She called me and asked me if I wanted to come to a funeral. He died. Got cancer and died within six months. And asked me if I wanted to come to a funeral. I went. Mary and I went. Six or eight people there. That's it. Matter of fact, his new minister asked me know who I was and said, do you want to come up and say a few words? I said, nope.

I'd have nothing good to say. That is bad.

Some people question their conversion.

That's being blind.

Wait a minute. They're going. I just don't know if I was ever called. Thirty years later, you ask that question.

Now, I'm not usually this negative about people that are negative, but today I'm negative about those people because it's because it's a state. It's a state of mind that God says, I give you this incredible mind. Use it. And then if you use it, then you'll have certain understanding that I'm going to help you get. And then I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit. And then you need to walk on water if you want.

Blind. They can't see. They can't see themselves. They can't see that they've drifted. They can't see. They can't understand. There's nothing.

How do you help someone who is blind? I spent a feast one time taking around a blind man. I didn't know him. He was just dropped off to me and I spent the whole feast. I was in my 20s, I guess. And they asked me if I could do it. I had no idea what I was getting into. I didn't. I'd never been around blind people before. Okay. I didn't know. I was blind because I had a cane and this and I had to open every door.

I had to do this, do that. And then he was a little demanding. But boy, was that a great lesson to me. You know, it helped me pray. It helped me pray to God and thank God that I wasn't blind. And I think that was a purpose. Not for him because I did help him. The feast took him out to ye, did all these things, but it helped me. It helped me realize I don't want to be physically blind and I don't want to be spiritually blind to where I can't see the value, the worth, and the power of this.

Finally, there's naked. Naked. Naked. Haven't we all had a dream that we went to school one time and stood up where we're naked in school? No. Well, you see, your minister's kind of weird. But I did. I was always like, ah, you know, I'm like, ah, what am I doing here? It wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare. Well, this, when God talks about naked, he's talking spiritually because you clothe in righteousness as he talks about. The linen clothes that he talks about, what is that? Yes. The righteousness of the saints, he wants us clothed with that. And these people, they don't, they don't, there's nothing spiritually, there's nothing spiritual about them.

They don't feel comfortable when a conversation takes place and you're getting too much into the Bible. You ever met those people? I've met them in church, talk about everything except God and the Bible. Or did you go to the thesis here? Oh, yeah, man, wasn't that great? Oh, man, did you go to eat at this place, Bill? Yeah. Messages? Oh, yeah, I saw, I saw something on the billboard out there. This is, this is, this is when you're naked, spiritually you're naked.

You're not comfortable with God talk, with walking with God. So, no. Therefore, since I said I wouldn't say so anymore, therefore, let's have the cure. I've got five minutes, five minutes for the cure. Wouldn't that be nice? You just take a pill, and all of a sudden you're spiritually strong. All these things go away. Ah-ha. Join me, Revelation 3 and verse 18.

I counsel you. I'm admonishing you, I'm telling you, I counsel you to buy from me gold, refined in the fire, that you may be rich. You may be rich. Jump over. David, you don't have this, because I just thought about this this morning. Psalm 119, you don't have to turn there. Don't turn there, just write this down. You can call, you can check it later and call me if I was lying. Okay, Psalm 119, verse 72, here's these incredible words.

The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. What is that gold? It's what comes from God. The Word of God. Let me give you, let me give you Psalm 19. Psalm 19, Psalm 19. Psalm 19. Think about it. Psalm 19, verse 10. He's talking about his words, his commandments, and he says, more to be desired are they than gold. Yes, than much gold, sweeter also than honey and honey. He's saying, buy this gold. Get back into this. Get out of the state you're in.

I'm here to cure you. I'm here to get your temperature down or up, because I'd rather have you cold and quit than just be lukewarm. I want you hot. Why did he love David? Because he said he was a, what? A man after, was David passionate? Yes! Whether it's about women or whether it's about dancing, this man was passionate. He'd dance in half naked, but he was excited. This is what God is looking for us to have, that passion.

The eyes of the Lord go to and fro over the entire earth looking for those who, what? No, whose hearts are loyal to him. He wants that loyalty.

Let's finish this.

Back at night, back at night 18. And white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness might not be revealed. Anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. He's wanting you to see, not be blind anymore. See him as he is. See where you're at. See if you've drifted and pull yourself back. If it takes it, swim to shore. Whatever it takes. Verse 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Why am I giving this? Because it is a rebuke and chasten to us as the church, to you as individual, so that we can see that it's not too late. If you're starting to drift or if you're drifting, pull back. Let's get back. Let's get back hot with God. Yes, that's what he wants.

And then he said, therefore, he does therefore too. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Repent for what? Repent for not being zealous. He wants zealousness. He wants to see the zeal. Be zealous and repent. What an incredible, incredible thing he's given to us. The cure.

Brethren, he gives it to us.

It may be an emergency in some cases.

It may be too late for some, but for most of us, it's not. Even when you drift a little ways. Because he has the cure. Don't drift.