How to Keep from Drifting

When it comes to our Christian life, is doing nothing really doing nothing? 

D. A. Carson says, “People do not drift toward holiness... We drift toward compromise.”

Today, we discus the final danger of pleasure - drifting. If we are not careful, our pleasures can become the very thing that cause us to drift away from God. 

Transcript

The Danger of Drifting

Do you love to do nothing? Yeah, me too! I’m really good at doing nothing.

But is doing nothing really doing nothing? 

·         There is no netral ground in our spiritual lives. 

Drifting – a gradual shift in position; an aimless course; to become carried along subject to no guidance or control.”

D. A. Carson says, “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated…. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation.”

                  I.            Why do we drift?

A.    We are not sure of our God-given purpose

1.      We live our lives with no direction

2.      Charles Stanley said, “When we lack direction, we don’t simply stagnate. We continue to move, usually in an unhealthy direction.”

3.      Your direction and purpose go hand-in-hand.

B.     You won’t live in distraction because there will be one set focus. 

C.     You will not live dependent upon your idols for satisfaction because your worship will be Christ alone. 

D.    You will not easily drift because you have defined your direction.

               II.            What is your purpose?

A.    Are you today, in this moment fulfilling your God-given purpose?

           III.            How to keep from drifting?

A.    Find spiritual anchors in your life

1.      “There is safety in the multitude of counselors.”

2.      Find people in your life who will blow wind into your sails but will also know when to throw out the anchor. 

B.     Work to remember God’s Word

1.      “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” (Heb 2:1)

2.      Set reminders on your phone or write it on the shower walls. 

C.    Encourage yourself in the Lord

1.      “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God” (1Sa 30:6)

2.      You must continually keep yourself encouraged or you will drift.