The Dangers of Spiritual Drift

In the message on Sunday, I spent some time teaching from Hebrews 2 and pointed to the writer’s warning about spiritual drift. I felt it was a serious enough warning to mention it again in this blog. My hope is that you understand that there is no standing still in our Christian life. You are either growing in your love and obedience to Jesus or drifting away in hardness and rebellion. 

The warning is found in Hebrews 2:1-4. 

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” 

For thousands of years, God has been telling His story. He used angels, prophets, signs, wonders, miracles, the Holy Spirit, and even His Son, Jesus. The story is simple, our sin broke the relationship between God and man, and that sin must be punished. However, God loved the world so much that He sent His son to take the punishment for us. If we turn from our sin and put our faith in Jesus, our punishment is paid, and we are saved. This is great salvation! This is amazing news! By faith, our punishment is paid by Jesus, and we are made citizens of a brand new kingdom! We have a new family where God is our Father, and other believers are our brothers and sisters! 

This news is meant to put every other thing on earth in its proper place. If our sin is forgiven, then our shame is washed away. If our punishment is paid, then we have no reason to fear God’s wrath that is coming to judge sin. If Jesus really came to earth in human form and rose from the dead, then we can look to one day in the future where He will return and rule on this earth as the greatest, most gracious king, that ever lived. 

This news is a big deal, but the Hebrews in the early church started to drift from it. And, we are close to drifting from it as well. 

We drift by letting our eyes get fixed on things that don’t matter or profane things that cry for our attention. We get distracted and eventually stop looking at Jesus. We let our hearts get stirred with things like comments on social media posts or the adrenaline rush of having people tell you how great you are. Eventually, our hearts aren’t stirred by Jesus. We chase a spiritual high in worship music from large churches or great messages from celebrity pastors. This makes us unsatisfied with the local church that is full of people who want to share their life with us. We get consumed with what someone did to us or didn’t do for us, and we forget to be a servant. We lose what it means to be a Christian in the real world, and our neighbors are robbed of seeing the gospel.

The message of Jesus is great news because it means you are free. But, it is also great news because of what it does on the inside of you. The message of Jesus is more than just a message of salvation; it is a message of ongoing transformation. My prayer for you is that this message rings in your ears all week. Revisit this message. Pay much closer attention to this message. Go back to what you have heard so that you can combat the dangers of spiritual drift.

-Marshall Ochs

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You Say

Lauren Daigle

The Other Side of The Jordan

Israel was made up of twelve tribes, each tribe a descendant of one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Israel is just one giant extended family. But in Joshua 20, we see three tribes of Israel choose to live apart from the rest of their family. The tribes of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh decided to stay on the other side of the Jordan River because it was more comfortable to live there than to live with the rest of their family. After years of living apart from their family, those three tribes forfeited being a part of their families memories and heritage. 

Fast forward a few thousand years, and we see the same thing happening in our church family today. We often choose comfort over being a part of a church family just like the Gadites, Reubenites, and the tribe of Manasseh. For some of us, we may be choosing the comfort of not letting people close enough to hold us accountable for our actions. If we never let people in, they can’t ever fully see the areas of our hearts that need growth. For others, you may feel uncomfortable sacrificing time that you think should be spent doing whatever you want. Maybe you attend a Sunday morning service, but you don’t want to sacrifice any time during the week to be a part of a community. And for a lot of you, being a part of the church family is uncomfortable because the church has hurt you time and time again. It’s a place full of sinful people, and they will, unfortunately, let you down because of it. But they are still your family as a part of the Kingdom of God!

Family can be messy and broken. The ones we love are the ones we know how to hurt the most. But family can also be such a beautiful picture of forgiveness and love without conditions. Your family knows you better than anyone else and chooses to love you anyway. What a beautiful example of being a part of God’s family. The church knows how to hurt you. It knows how to cut you deeper than anyone else can. But the church also knows how to love you, and it loves more fiercely than anyone else can through the Holy Spirit.

Growth can’t happen without being uncomfortable first. It forces you to examine your heart and doesn’t allow you to stay the same. Take the risk of being a part of God’s family. It may sting a little, but the reward FAR outweighs that risk.

-Kelsey Turner

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Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

Hillsong UNITED

Worship: A Resource

Have you been struggling to find music to use in your worship time at home? We want to help! Music is such a powerful tool to remind ourselves of who God is, and for generations, people have used music as a way of teaching and remembering what has been taught. We see David encourage us to worship in song over and over in the Psalms.

"Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!" Psalms 47

One of the albums that we have had on repeat is There Is More by Hillsong Worship. You may recognize some of these songs from our very own worship services, such as Who You Say I Am and So Will I (100 Billion X). The album is full of songs that will fill your heart with the truth of the gospel and remind your soul of who our King is.

You can find the album on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to music. Check it out!

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TOUCH OF HEAVEN

HILLSONG WORSHIP

Put One Foot in Front of the Other

In Joshua 6, God commanded Israel to conquer the city of Jericho. It was the first major city in the new land, and a giant wall surrounded it. The wall was built in three tiers. The first tier was cut into bedrock and ran vertically into the second tier which was made of stone. The first two walls were about 12-15 ft tall. The third tier was made of mud bricks and stood 20-25 feet tall. From the base to the top, it stood almost 40 ft. I’m sure every Hebrew had their opinion about how to conquer the city, but God gave strict instructions to Joshua.

Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.” So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord.” And he said to the people, “Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.” Joshua 6:1-7

God told Israel to walk around the walls, and He would give them the victory. To summarize the story, Israel obeyed God’s instructions and marched around Jericho once for six days, and seven times on the seventh day. They cried with a great voice, and the walls fell to the ground. Israel received the victory by obeying God, and all they did was walk. I find it interesting that walking is all they did for the past 40 years, and walking is what brought the victory. It’s funny how we can walk in disobedience for 40 years or walk in obedience for 7 days.

The book of Joshua is a perfect Christian study in sanctification. God used Joshua’s leadership to teach Israel about obedience and conquering the enemy. Jesus is doing the same thing in our life by asking us to obey Him and put sin to death.  Jericho is a symbol for the strongholds in our life that are full of sin. They are areas of our heart, ruled by a foreign king, and Jesus is our better Joshua leading us to victory. 

Your city may not be named Jericho. It might be called Racism, Hatred, Anger, Bitterness, Gossip, or Fear. Whatever the city is called, Jesus wants it to crumble. He has a battle plan, and it is very similar to what Joshua told the Israelites. Do the thing you have always done, walk. Walk through your daily life, but do it in obedience to Christ. 

Don’t walk through life cursing your surroundings or complaining about where you live. Don’t walk through life being angry with everyone you meet. Don’t walk through life with bitterness 40 ft high. Jesus has set you free from slavery. Jesus has saved you from darkness and is calling you into marvelous light. 

Walk through life obeying the commands Jesus gave us. Walk through life loving your neighbor and being thankful in all circumstances. Walk through life with the peace that rivals anything on earth. Walk through life cherishing Jesus as the most valuable thing in your life. 

Some of the cities in your heart have walls taller than Jericho. At times it can feel overwhelming, and there seems to be no hope in sight. But, if you follow Jesus in obedience on a daily basis, the walls will come down. The walls always fall when you put one foot in front of the other and take obedience one step at a time. 

-Marshall Ochs

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Song In My Soul

Phil Wickham

Life Between The Miracles

If you follow the story of Israel in the book of Exodus, you see a pattern. When God performed a miracle for Israel, the people responded with worship and thankfulness. However, between the miracles was a time filled with complaining and idolatry. For example, in Exodus 12 God performed the miracle of Passover. He killed the first-born of everyone in Egypt, but "passed over" the Hebrew homes who followed God's instruction to sacrifice a substitute lamb. Israel's response to this miracle was general awe for God, but two chapters later they were back to complaining.

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." Exodus 14:10-12

In Exodus 15, Israel watched God part an ocean so they could cross on dry land and defeat Egypt with a remarkable display of power. Israel's immediate response was to break out in song and worship God. However, in the very next chapter, they started complaining again.

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Exodus 16:1-3

This pattern continued for the next 50 days. Israel complained, God performed a miracle, Israel worshiped, and Israel complained. The pinnacle of this pattern was in Exodus 20. Israel reached Mt.Sinai, and God covered the mountain in fire, lightning, and a thick cloud. He spoke the ten commandments to the people, and everyone heard His voice. Young and old, everyone heard God speak the ten commandments! Moses then went up the mountain to talk to God, and he was gone for 40 days. During that time, Israel lost faith that Moses would return, so they created a golden calf from their jewelry and worshiped it as God.

As I read through these stories, one thing stands out to me. Israel's response to miracles didn't reveal what was in their heart. The miracles opened their eyes to God's power, but the time between the miracles revealed their heart. It's hard to doubt God's power when He splits the ocean right in front of you or speaks from a mountaintop. But, can you trust His power to guide you through the wilderness when there is no mountain or ocean? Do you want Him above all else when all you see for miles is wilderness, or do you find yourself complaining about where He has you?

The story of Exodus, in a way, is a long parable about the process of trusting God between miracles. Jesus reinforced this theme in Matthew 12.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:38-40

When the leaders of Israel asked Jesus for a miracle, He responded by saying, "I'm going to raise myself from the dead, and that is all the miracle you will need." That is an important point for us to consider. If the resurrection was the greatest miracle of all time, and Jesus promises to return in the clouds and resurrect the dead (another powerful miracle) what is God exposing right now in our life between these miracles?

We are no different than Israel. Our hearts are full of complaints and idolatry. But, in God's wisdom, He is leading us through a wilderness on earth to purge us of things that don't belong in our hearts. Take this time to pursue Jesus with all your heart, as you live your life between the miracles.

- Marshall Ochs

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Miracles

Jesus Culture