Devote your Mind to God’s Truth, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Many of us are being pulled in so many directions with life's challenges and responsibilities. It can be easy to put some areas of our lives on autopilot. But are we still paying attention where it counts? Our text from Hebrews 2, 1-4 challenges us with this. We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. We don't drift in a positive direction, and spiritual drift leads to destruction. Therefore, we must devote ourselves to God's truth, allowing it to inform our decisions and attitudes.

C.S. Lewis pointed out that Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the one thing it cannot be is moderately important. Let's listen in now. This is the second part of a message preached on April 29, 2012, titled Devote Your Mind to God's Truth. All the miracles that Jesus did, they were a verification of the truth that he spoke.

And his truth claims of himself as deity, as the rescuer, as the savior of mankind. All of this out in the open. It wasn't done secretly.

It was out in the open. All of God involved in this communication. So not only is it an awesome message, but it is a very clear message. We don't have to scratch our heads figuring out what God's trying to say.

I hate those words. What is God trying to say here? Listen, God doesn't try to say anything.

He says it. It is up to us to understand what he is saying. Now, why do we need to devote our minds to God's truth? Well, because it is an awesome message, and two, it is abundantly clear.

But why? For your good. Devote your mind to God's truth for your good. Now, here's the warning here, okay? This is a warning. Devote your mind to God's truth for your good. Let's go back now to verses one and two. We must give the more earnest heed to these things we have heard, lest we drift away. There's the warning.

Verse three, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The word neglect. It means to be careless, to make light of. What do you have to do to be negligent? Hmm? Ignore. What do you, yeah.

What do you have to do to be negligent? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. If you have a garden and you want to grow weeds, what do you have to do? Nothing.

If you're in a marriage relationship and you want it to drift apart, what do you have to do? Nothing. We don't drift in a positive direction. And this is the warning of Hebrews chapter two. You have to do nothing to be negligent, and it's not a good thing. So imagine this, this awesome and clear message that God has given us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. And we do nothing about it.

How astounding is that? That's why the writer gives this warning. What does negligence lead to? It leads to drift. Drift is not progress. Drift means we're distracted by other options. I have this incredible, clear message in front of me, and for some reason, something else has grabbed my attention. And I'm neglecting this, and I start drifting away from this message of rescue, which, by the way, is my only hope of rescue.

To know God and to be with Him. It's my only hope. You see, drift is not positive. Like I said, we don't drift in a positive direction. Think about being in a boat, and you're drifting downstream, and you're upstream on the Niagara River, and this is where you're heading, right? You need not move an oar or make an effort to destroy yourself, all you have to do is nothing. And if you drift, you're headed for destruction.

D.A. Carson says, people do not drift towards 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. Christians, be warned. This is the warning of Hebrews 2 for you. Your default is not progress.

Your default is drift, and all you have to do is nothing. That's why he says, once again, what he does in verse 1. Therefore, in my translation, devote your mind to God's truth for your good. Devote your mind to God's truth for your good.

This is the warning. I have been told that it has been said that the true function of the preacher is to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed. If you are here this morning, I hope you become disturbed.

Because we're not called to comfortable complacency when it comes to the truth of God. Devote your mind to God's truth, lest you drift away. Is your check engine light on? Is there dead air in your spiritual life? There's nothing going on there. You say, well, yeah, I know I'm a Christian, but there's really nothing going on. I'm really not making any progress. I just feel like I'm drifting. I've never really measured any growth in Christ.

You're drifting. You need to get back to devoting your mind to God's truth. This is what the writer of Hebrews is telling us. If you were here this morning and you don't know that you're in Christ, you say, you know, I'm not sure if I am a Christian. I'm not buying into this Christ thing yet. First of all, let me encourage you to understand that God has spoken to us. God is your creator and he made you for himself. And he sent his son Jesus Christ to rescue you, to reconcile you to himself, because that's what you were created for.

That's the awesome message, and it is abundantly clear. But many people today might be saying, you know, I'm just not given much thought to that because there's so much around us. You know, life's just life's running kind of fine right now. You don't feel a felt need for God. Life's pretty good. I'm doing OK. Studies have shown, and this was in an article in USA Today in December of 2011, and this was a couple of different universities.

One was Baylor University and another was a LifeWay Research. But 44 percent of respondents told a study that they spend no time seeking eternal wisdom. Nineteen percent said it's useless to search for meaning. Forty-six percent of respondents told the research that they never wonder if they will go to heaven. Twenty-eight percent said that it's, quote, not a major priority in my life to find deeper meaning.

Eighteen percent denied that God has a purpose or plan for everyone. You might say, man, that's astounding. I'm like, you know, I look at that the opposite way.

I say, you know, I'm encouraged by that. You know what that means? That means if only 19 percent said it's useless to search for meaning, what does that mean to the other 81 percent? They're searching for meaning. Did my math right? Thank you.

Just checking. If 44 percent said that they really don't spend any time seeking eternal wisdom, what does that mean of the other 56 percent? Some of that 56 percent might be in this room here this morning. Hebrews 2, 1 to 4 is for you. Considering who has spoken and his awesome and clear message, devote your mind to God's truth for your good. That's the message of the word of God this morning. So we can find a so what in this. A so what. God has spoken.

Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we heard, lest we drift away. There's two so what's. First of all is for if you are here this morning and you cannot honestly say, I am a Christian, I am in Christ, I have my sins and I know beyond a shadow of doubt that I am going to be with God in eternity. If that describes you, then this so what is for you. The message is awesome. And it can't be more awesome. You're not going to find a more awesome message.

That the infinite eternal creator who made you came to rescue you. That is an awesome message. Not only is it awesome, but it is clear and it couldn't be any clearer. It could not be any clearer. God has spoken in person.

Here is the main point of the message that has been communicated. And that is that rescue, your rescue is through reconciliation. Reconciliation to be brought back together with. You see, you were designed for relationship. You were created for it. God made you for relationship. The very purpose of your design is to know God and to enjoy him, to be in fellowship with him.

Nothing will bring you satisfaction like that or even apart from that. And your rescue is through reconciliation. Remember what we learned from Romans Chapter one, verse 18, and that is that God's wrath has been revealed. Teaching us that God is a holy God, he is an infinite and holy God, and we are a rebellious people. We're not victims.

We're rebels. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word, the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.