Lest We Drift

♪ To my knees and brain ♪ ♪ Come, Jesus, come ♪ ♪ Let today be the day ♪ ♪ Sometimes I feel ♪ ♪ Like I'm gonna break ♪ ♪ But I'm holding on ♪ ♪ To a hope that won't fade ♪ ♪ Come, Jesus, come ♪ ♪ We've been waiting so long ♪ ♪ For the day you return ♪ ♪ To heal every world ♪ ♪ And ride every long ♪ ♪ We need you right now ♪ ♪ Come and turn this around ♪ ♪ Deep down I know ♪ ♪ This world isn't wrong ♪ ♪ Come, Jesus, come ♪ ♪ Come, Jesus, come ♪ ♪ There'll be no hope ♪ ♪ There'll be no chance ♪ ♪ When Jesus comes ♪ ♪ Let today be the day ♪ ♪ You come for the weak ♪ ♪ And the strong just the same ♪ ♪ All we'll believe ♪ ♪ In the power of His name ♪ ♪ Come, Jesus, come ♪ ♪ We've been waiting so long ♪ ♪ For the day you return ♪ ♪ To heal every world ♪

♪ And ride every long ♪ ♪ We need you right now ♪ ♪ Let me turn this around ♪ ♪ Deep down I know this world isn't old ♪ ♪ Come Jesus come ♪ ♪ Come Jesus come ♪ ♪ One day you come ♪ (audience applauding) ♪ And we'll stand face to face ♪ ♪ Come and lay it all down ♪ ♪ 'Cause it might be today ♪ ♪ That time is right now ♪ ♪ There's no need to wait ♪ ♪ Your past will be won ♪ ♪ By rivers I pray ♪ ♪ From Jesus come ♪ ♪ We've been waiting so long ♪ ♪ For the day you return ♪ ♪ To heal every word ♪ ♪ And bright every door ♪ ♪ We need you right now ♪ ♪ Come and turn this around ♪ ♪ Deep down I know this world isn't old ♪ ♪ Come to Jesus come ♪ ♪ Come to Jesus come ♪ ♪ Come to Jesus come ♪ ♪ We've been waiting so long ♪ ♪ To me then, to heal every word ♪ ♪ And I am gone ♪ ♪ We need you right now ♪

♪ Come and turn this around ♪ ♪ Deep down I know this world isn't mine ♪ ♪ Come to the sky ♪ ♪ Come to the sky ♪ ♪ Come to the sky ♪ ♪ Come, Jesus, come ♪ (upbeat music) (applause) - Last Sunday, I took you to the first chapter of the Hebrews, and we started off by looking at scripture and realizing that the great creator of all things, God Almighty, through Jesus Christ, spoke everything into existence. The first few verses talk about His might and His power, His glory, His majesty, and then it just suddenly changed, and it said, this great creator has purged us from our sins and given us clean, new lives. But then He says, not only has the blood of Jesus washed away your sins, the blood of Jesus gives you the power to live for Christ every day. In addition to that, Jesus sent His own Holy Spirit. He puts His Spirit inside of you to guide you and strengthen you. In addition to that, He sent angels to help us as we walk down the path of life. Angels are here right now. Then He begins the second chapter with these words. Therefore, whoa, there it is. He's summing it all up right here. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed

to the things we have heard lest we drift away. Oh, that's a bombshell. Therefore, since you know all those great things, we must give the more earnest heed. We must listen carefully to the things we've heard, all those things. Listen carefully because you might drift away. What? You mean to tell me that I can be stunned by the fact that God Almighty, the Creator, loves me, forgave me, wants me in His heaven, but somehow I can drift away? Wow, that's what it says, because we humans are odd things. We don't really think all the time. We get comfortable. What He's saying is, all that beautiful revelation in chapter 1 can at first excite you, blow your mind, but then you can get used to it, and then just get relaxed and drift. And then He goes on to say, if the Word spoken through angels proved steadfast. That means if heaven says it, it's done. And every transgression, every, and every disobedience gets judged, how shall we escape? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

Oh, now I'm told not only to take heed, but to be careful that I don't neglect this great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. Jesus spoke it first. The Apostles spoke it to us. God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Folks, look what God has done. This great Creator has saved us from our sins. I'm repeating myself. I understand that. His blood has cleansed us. His blood gives us power to live right every day. He sent His Holy Spirit to abide with us. Then He sent angels to minister to us. Then God says, "And just to show you I'm not finished yet, I will send signs and wonders and miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit to keep you constantly aware that you are my child. But you can never take any of this for granted." I say it all the time. We are to rest in Christ, but we can never relax. Because the moment you get comfortable with God is the moment you start drifting away. I read this from Jesus. This is nothing new to those who read the Bible, but Jesus said, "Take heed." Are you ever amazed? All the wonderful truths we have from Scripture and yet an equal number of warnings. He tells us to rejoice. Then He turns around and says, "Be careful." He tells us to give Him glory and have joy unspeakable, but then He says, "Take heed."

Take heed to yourselves. Lest, are you listening to church? Lest your hearts be weighted down with carousing. I guess that means clubbing, partying all the time, and drunkenness. We know what that is. And the cares of this life, we certainly know what that is. The daily cares that pinch and bite and push and make us feel heavy-hearted and weary in well-doing, and if you get into that place, that day could come on you unexpectedly. That day we've been singing about, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. I know I'm veering here, but we may have someone who doesn't know Jesus here this morning. Let me tell you something, whoever you might be, you say, "I don't believe in all that." Okay, well, didn't just listen to this. Jesus Christ is going to catch the saints away. One day only sinners will be left on this earth. One day the wrath of God, this good loving, sweet kind God, is going to turn into a wrathful God of revenge, and he's going to pour out his anger on those that reject his son's love. That's what he's saying, "Watch and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? So I am warned constantly to be on guard, to guard my heart, to filter my eyes, to put a bridle on my tongue, to keep distance between me and this world. This is not my home. This world is not my home. Their fame and fortune and glory are but trash to the child of God. We're going somewhere where even streets are made with gold. But it's not about the gold and it's not about the precious stones. It's about seeing him face to face and knowing that he will never, ever be away from us again. That's why you have to be vigilant, be on guard every day of your life. Protect yourself.

Wrap your arms of prayer around this great salvation that the Lord has given you. And see, this is 2025. This is the worst generation, the most evil generation since the flood of Noah, and it's getting worse every day. And it's not only society that is rotten. I'm telling you again, the so-called church, religious people are more like the world every There is no longer a fear of God in this world and in most churches. You know, we've been taught for a long time, falsely so. God's your friend, God's your buddy. God doesn't want you to be afraid of him. I've heard preachers say, "I'm not afraid of God. "Why, if he loved me enough to save me, I'm his pal. "I'm his buddy." But that does not ring true with scripture. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I'm taught time and time again. Yee, that loved the Lord, fear him. Fear the Lord. Respect the Lord. Jesus said, "You don't have to fear any man, "but you better fear God because God can cast both body "and soul into hell." But the fear of God is gone. And I'm sorry to say that many, many Christians no longer have a quaking, respectful fear of the God who saved them. I found a very interesting verse in Exodus chapter 20. You remember now God has gathered the children of Israel. He's brought them across the Red Sea

and they're in the wilderness and he's about to give them his law, his requirements. He's about to tell 'em, "This is what makes me happy." And so they're gathered around the base of the mountain and God booms out commandments, 10. And it is such a frightful thing. As soon as he finishes number 10, that mountain is on fire. Smoke is billowing out of it. Flashes of lightning shine forth. The ground is quaking. The people are shaking. And there's this strange sound like a trumpet, like a ram's horn that gets exceedingly loud until the people feel like their eardrums will burst. And they are so afraid. Even Moses said, "I do exceedingly fear and quake at the sight of this." But God said to Moses, "Now go tell the people, these are the laws I want them to keep." Now listen to these words from Moses. Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you and that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin." One translation says, "Your fear of him will keep you from sinning." So what's the problem today? Why is there so much sin in the camp? Sin in the church, in the pulpit, in the home because we've lost our fear of God. People do not believe that they're going to stand

before a holy God and give an account for the life they've lived. Every one of you, all people, everybody who has ever lived on this earth will one day give an account to God for the life they lived, the words they've spoken, the things they've done, but people don't believe that anymore. That's why they sin so regularly and frivolously. They don't fear God. They don't believe that there is a holy, heavenly being that demands righteousness, holiness and justice and that when you stand before him, you will be judged not by your bank account, not by where you graduated, not by hell. Well, you've done in life. You will be judged by everything you've ever done and the standard will be the holiness of God himself. (congregation applauds) Your fear of him will keep you from sinning. I believe that's true. If I believe that when I sin, I'm going to face the judgment of God. I might face it now on this earth, but I surely will face it one day before him. If I believe that, I will watch myself. I will not be free to look at anything. I will not run my mouth. I will not run my brother down. I will be very careful, and I will walk in purity and steadfastness because I'm walking

in front of a holy God. I've been watching the news, there's a lot to watch, isn't there? Ooh, I've been kind of amazed that Texas either has or is about to pass a law to put the Ten Commandments back in all their schools. I'm for that. I'm for putting them anywhere. As long as people know that God doesn't just want His laws displayed, He wants them obeyed. And you can splatter them on every building in the country. But if you don't plan to obey them, you're just posting condemnation on yourself. See God gave that law to show us that we cannot keep that law. God didn't give it and say, "Now you've got to keep it to go to heaven." No, He gave it and said, "You can't keep it." But I got somebody who did. And if you believe on Him, it's as though you kept it yourself. You become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. So I want you to know that in Scripture, when God gave His law, He didn't just say, "Ah, nail it up on the door. Ah, put it down at the market. Put it on the doors at Harris Theater, downtown Bank of America." He said, "No, I want you to bring your children in the house and teach them. And I want you to obey them to the best of your ability." Ten commandments were not given by God to us just as some religious statement like Martin Luther nailing the 95 thesis on the door at Videnberg. No, the law of God is the heart of God, and it's how God wants people to live. So all of this noise I just talked about, the mountain burning and the lightning and the earthquakes and the thundering and the trumpet sounding, that took place after He gave the law. It was like God said, "See there I mean what I'm talking about." He's serious about his law.

What do the commandments teach us? The ten commandments. But I said, "The Old Testament pastor, folks, the new is in the old and the old is in the new. I don't want to hear all that stuff." Well, that was done away in Christ. I don't want to hear that. I've been studying too long for you to give me that little argument. It's weak. What did God actually say? First of all, He said, "I am God. There's none like me. Have no other gods before me." And you've heard it before. People who really mean well say, "I'll tell you, God's first on my list." Folks, there is no list. There is nothing else but God. And a true believer knows that. It's not God, family, church, business, and on and on. It's not God. God. Paul said, "He is our life." Not part of our life, not some of our life. He is our life, and there is no list. I am God. There's none above me, none beside me. I am only God. I'm the only true and living God. There is no other God. There are other heads of religions, but they were men, and they were demon-possessed, and

they were foolish, and people who follow them are the same. There is only one God, and it's not Mohammed. Buddha is a fat piece of rock. There is only one God that lives and breathes and moves and saves and heals and delivers and sustains and blesses hallelujah His name of Jehovah, Almighty God and O'Nigh. Then he said, "You are not to make a carved image of what you think I might look like. God does not look like anything He created." He said, "Don't make an image of me, whether you think it's a bird or a fish or a man or a mammal, don't make any images and look at it and think that represents me. Don't look at a picture, don't hold beads, don't stand in front of candles, don't look at relics, don't go to old, musty buildings, because I am God. I am spirit and you cannot recreate or craft spirit. When you come to me, you must come in spirit and in truth. You won't find God in a certain place. You'll find Him when you say the name Jesus and when you come to Him in spirit and in truth, you know what real worship is. Don't make any representations of me. Don't take my name in vain. Listen up, O-M-G is taking his name in vain. Who understands that? I guess if you're 60 and older, you don't. Oh, my God. I know that's not a real good representation of, I don't know what honest that's so helped me God. These young people, oh, my God, where did you learn to talk like that? Oh, my God, uh, uh, where did you learn that? I said it at 8.30. You're from the south. That's California talk. Oh, my God.

Well every time you, oh, my gosh, you have taken the Lord's name in vain when we have hazardly, lightly speak of the Almighty in our conversation and our common talk. We have taken his name in vain and he said, I will not hold you guiltless if you take my name in vain. Uh, uh, now watch. These are the commandments they won't post it everywhere. Listen to this one. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. God said, I created everything in six days and on the seventh day I rested. He told Israel, you do the same thing. In the land of Israel, they even let the land rest every seven years. God says to us through Jesus and Paul, why as a Christian every day is a Sabbath day, but there ought to be one day that you don't work and try to make money, that you don't wear yourself out doing stuff. There ought to be one day when you refresh yourself with rest and scripture and prayer and family. And he said, remember to do that. Don't ever forget it. And America, there are people that work seven days a week. Listen, no child of God can do that without drifting away, without neglecting this great salvation. Then he said, honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the earth, which the Lord your God has given you. Folks, we live in a bad mixed up, messed up day. These are all the pieces, they're such disgusting. Did you hear me? The only thing we can do is fix our own families, our own church. This says honor, your father, and your mother. I do know this. You may have had a bad father or a bad mother. The Bible means what it says. When you do something because God said do it, even though it's uncomfortable, uneasy, you'd rather take a whippin than do it if you do it because God said it. You have just unzipped heaven and blessings will fall into your life and when you get to heaven,

just because you obey God, God will have riches and rewards stored up for you. Honor, your father, and your mother. That's what it says. Then he said, "Thou shalt not murder." Now, O King James says, "Thou shalt not kill." It's really murder. Murder is the premeditated termination of innocent human life. That is as concise as I can make it. Murder is the premeditated, thought about it, planned on it, termination ended, of innocent human life, people that can't help themselves, people that can't speak up for themselves, people that have no one to represent them and society or persons take advantage of them and take their life. The unborn are innocent human beings. It's not talking about fighting in a war. This is about ending the life of helpless people because they are an inconvenience to you. Thou shalt not murder. Next, thou shalt not commit adultery. Marriage is between one man and one woman and it's supposed to be for life till death parts us. Within the context of that one man, one woman relationship is intimacy that God only allows in that marital bond. When either one steps out of it and is unfaithful to the other for any reason, that is adultery. When people are not married and engage in illicit sexual activity, that is fornication. Both are sin, but you know as well as I do, that's not a stigmatic thing anymore. People do it all the time. Hollywood set the pace. Congress persons are close second. Presidents, leaders, they all seem to do it and they do it with impunity. It just doesn't seem to matter to people anymore. In fact, people seem to get married and say if it works out great, now when I got married and I said to her for better or for worse till death do part us, I meant what I said. There was no way out. The word divorce has never been in our relationship. And that's the way it is for you, many of you, but that's not what it is today. And the thing of just being happy, I just want to be happy. So I'm going to find somebody that will make me happy. I'll say it in a worldly way. Good luck. Because you're not happy because you are not happy. Something's wrong with you. You couldn't even be married to yourself. Something's wrong with you. God intended for a man and a woman to be married and live in holy matrimony. I'm going to tell you the reason they They have no fear of God. A marriage has to be prayed over. You got to go to church together. You got to respect one another.

You got to hold each other in high esteem. You got to quit all this competitive junk. You got to realize this is not just a union of a man and a woman. This is a holy union that God Himself recognizes. And to play with that is to play with the integrity of Almighty God. If you are having a sex outside of marriage, you are an adulterer. If you are having it as an unsaved person, you're a fornicator. Now, that may sound mean to a lot of people. Of course, if you're visiting today, you might have lost your breath. You might be thinking, "This is a crazy man." And this is a crazy bunch of people up in here. All I'm doing is preaching the Bible. That's all I'm doing. I'm preaching what the Bible says. Now shout not steal, steal, don't take something that doesn't belong to you. Again, I will not mention the place because this is all over the internet. They had to close, I still can't get it. They had to close down a Walmart in a certain place, not far from here, because of employee theft, a Walmart, and the employees were stealing them out of business. I rode by the thing the other day, and this boarded up. See here's how people think, and they justify it. Well they're not paying me what I'm worth, so I'll just take a little bit. They don't value me, I'm underpaid, or they don't need it. Oh they got plenty in the storehouse, in the workroom, they got plenty. And so we justify taking things. How can a believer do such a thing? Because they've drifted away, they've lost their fear of God. They don't realize that you may not have been caught by them, but you have been seen by him. Him, if it's not yours, you don't take it.

But what? The Lord said, leave it up to me. I'll make all things right one of these days. You're going to end up with more than you actually deserve one of these days. But keep my word while you're on this earth. And then he said, I shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Again, sometimes we read that quickly and say, well that's between two neighbors and they're having a dispute over the property line. One guy put his fence six inches over on this guy's fence, now they got to go to court and hey, that could be it. Folks, court sessions are between people. It's all about people. You can't bear false witness against your neighbor, not just the one beside you. Jesus said, or the man said, who is my neighbor? Jesus said, actually everybody's your neighbor. You can't bear false witness. You can't claim anything against your neighbor. Folks. How can I say it again? I can't sue your dog. I can sue you because you let your dog bite my daughter, but I can't sue a dog. Court is between people. So whenever people are in court, we begin by saying, would you place your hand on the Bible? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, if nothing but the truth will help you God. I do. I saw it not long ago. I saw a man put his hand on the Bible and swear that he would do that. And then I watched and listened as he told one lie after another. How can you do that?

No fear of God doesn't believe there's going to be a judgment. in a black robe. Jesus, or Paul said, "You don't lie to men, you lie to God." We forget that. We don't lie to people, we are lying to God, and the greater court contains the smaller court, and whatever is going on in the small court is being watched by the big court, and one day the judge of all the earth is going to bring everybody before his throne, his judgment seat, and they will have to pay. So listen to this. The last one says, "I shall not covet, covet." This one makes me scratch my head because in the Hebrew again, he's actually saying, "You shall not want to do anything wrong." What? You shall not have the desire to do anything wrong. How can that be? That is an impossibility to not have a desire. You see, folks, every time you sin, you wanted to. Nobody sins. I didn't want to do that. Yeah, you did. That's why you did it. If you do the right thing, you did it because you wanted to do the right thing. If you do the wrong thing, you do it because you want to do the wrong thing, just the way it is. You see, you got two natures in you. When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, Satan injected his devilish nature right into the human race. But then after Jesus came, Peter said, "Now that you've believed on the Lord, he has injected his divine nature into you as well." So you got this really serious, awful clash of personalities and natures and wills going on inside of you. In fact, Paul said, "When I want to do the right thing, I can't. I end up doing the wrong thing. I can't get out of this battle. I'm constantly having to make decisions, and I don't know what to do about it." He said, "Oh wretched man that I am. I'm losing my mind." What do you do about it? He said, "Don't even want to sin, but it's in me." I read from a guy named John Phillips, he said, "What if a biologist were to take the larva of a beautiful butterfly and the larva of a spider and somehow graph them together so that the two are fused as one? What a monster. You've got the butterfly who wants sunlight and he wants to fly and he wants to soar, but you've got the spider who wants to hide in a dark corner. You've got the butterfly and all of this beauty have you seen their wings and you've got the ugly, long-legged body of a spider weaving a web. You've got a beautiful butterfly who flits from beautiful flower to beautiful flower and sits there with his beautiful wings just slowly flapping as he takes in the sweet nectar of flowers. Then you've got an ugly spider in a dark corner waiting on some innocent little tiny insect

so he can suck the life out of it. That's a monster and that's what's going on inside of people who are saved right now. You've got an old nature in you. You've got a new nature inside of you. If you neglect your great salvation, you will drift away and suddenly the spider begins to feel enlivened. The spider inside of you is invigorated and it goes after all the dark, deadly stuff. But if you will take heed and follow after Christ and live in his word and obey his commandments and go to church and get good friends, the butterfly and you begins. that's what he meant when he said, don't neglect this great salvation. I don't know any other way to make you aware of the importance of reading the Bible and praying and going to church than the way I've done it this morning. 'Cause there's an ugly old spider inside of you. And if you give it a chance, it will show its ugly head. You know what I'm talking about? And the only way for me to avoid him having any advantage in my life is for me to fear God. Enough to say, I need scripture in my life. I need to be with other believers. I need to be on my knees. This will soon be over. When it is, I want to soar to the highest heights and be with Christ forever. We pray that today as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus. To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive

Central's jail and prison correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, Jail and Prison Ministries Discipleship Center, 5143 Sardis Road, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28270. Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching. (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]