INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• We are in December! Christmas is right around the corner. What is one thing that in reality seems to take center-stage during the Christmas season?
• GIFTS!
• We all know it is supposed to be about Jesus, BUT?
• Really, how many of us are willing to stay up all night to pray or read our bible? I did do some praying during Black Friday.
• In reality how many of us would max out our credit cards to help with some program at church or for God’s kingdom? (PLEASE DO NOT MAX OUT YOUR CREDIT CARDS FOR ANYTHING!)
• Boy I sound mean! But in all seriousness.
• How many of you enjoy receiving gifts? We all enjoy gifts, and I believe God wants us to enjoy our gifts.
• I know we all do enjoy receiving gifts and I think at least as we get older, we really enjoy giving gifts. Speaking of giving gifts follow me for a minute!
• I want you to picture with me the following scene. Your loved one really wants a particular gift. If can be a car, a piece of jewelry or whatever you can think of.
• You know your loved one wants this gift and you really want to give to it to them. There is one problem; the gift is very, very expensive.
• But still, you want to be able to give this gift to your loved one. It is going to take a great sacrifice on your part to get this gift.
• Well, now you make the sacrifices necessary to purchase the gift. It was a struggle; you put in a lot of extra hours of hard work to get it. Now comes the time to give the gift. You hand the gift over and you wait for the reaction.
• Your loved one is ecstatic! They are going crazy, they love the gift. After they settle down you tell them that this gift comes with instructions for the proper care of the gift. You ask that they take good care of the gift because it was so costly.
• As time goes by you start to notice that the gift you have given to your loved one, the gift you sacrificed for, is being neglected. You see it is not being taken care of. How would you feel?
• Our God has given all who have been immersed into Christ a great gift called salvation. He has offered that gift to anyone who wants it.
• The gift that God has given was given at great expense and sacrifice. I believe if we are not careful we can go down a path where we just take the gift for granted.
• I believe we really need to guard against going down that path, today let us look at why we should appreciate our gift!
• SLIDE #2
• Hebrews 2:1 (ESV) Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. Give full attention to your gift.
• Let us look at verse 1 together.
• The Hebrew writer tells us, “Therefore.” The reason we are to pay closer attention to what Jesus has said is because He is superior to everything else!
• What are we to pay closer attention to? We are told to pay closer attention to what we have heard!
• This includes all the facts, commands, warnings, and promises of the Gospel! We have a tendency to just listen to the wonderful promises of heaven and we forget the rest.
• We are told to “pay much closer attention” to what we have heard. This means much more than just listening and hearing, it takes us to the next level of DOING.
• The words translated “pay much closer attention” means to not only focus the mind on something, but to direct the actions towards the something also.
• This same verb was used in Greek literature when speaking of a Captain of a ship bringing the ship to shore.
• The Captain not only had to look closely at what was being done, but he had to also direct the actions of the ship to accomplish the goal of safe harbor.
• Hearing is not enough; we must act upon what we know.
• SLIDE #4
• James 2:26 (ESV) 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
• Having faith that we pay no attention to is like having a dead animal for a pet.
• You can look at the dead animal but you cannot do anything with it. HERE, FETCH!
• If your faith is not active, it is as useless as having a dead ANIMAL for a pet. Plus when something dies, it starts to stink after a while.
• Our faith requires a lot of effort to be put out by us.
• SLIDE #5
• Luke 13:24 (ESV) “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
• That striving implies a lot of effort on our part. Our faith should lead to our actions.
• Why do we need to pay closer attention to what we heard?
• We are told if we do not pay closer attention to our faith WE WILL DRIFT AWAY from it!
• This passage tells us that WE can drift away from our faith. God does not do the drifting, we do.
• The phrase “drift away” is a nautical term that was used of a ship that was not tied down in the harbor. The ship would be carried out to sea by the current.
• There are many passages that tell us how we must be anchored to Jesus lest we drift away or get tossed around by every wave of doctrine. (2 Peter 1:10; James 1:6; Ephesians 4:14, 6:11)
• The phrase “drift away” also deals with letting something slip off. It would be like letting your ring slip off your finger when you swim. It can also mean taking the wrong path.
• The common thread that ties all 3 of these meanings together is that the loss was sustained because of a failure to pay close attention!
• Doing evil is not the only way to separate oneself from God, but we can also do it by simply doing nothing, by simply drifting away from God, going with the flow of the world.
• For most people who fall from Jesus, the fall is gradual. They slowing stop doing the things they need to do to grow and then one day we no longer see them.
• We drift when we are not anchored in the truth (Ephesians 4:14)
• We drift because we let the subtle and powerful currents of life tug on our soul
• We drift because we are preoccupied with unimportant and secondary things that take too much of our time and attention.
• We MUST pay close attention to the gift we have been given!
• Turn to verses 2-3 with me.
• SLIDE #6
• Hebrews 2:2–3a (ESV) 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
• SLIDE #7
II. The price for neglect is steep.
• Verse 2 takes us back to the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant was binding until the New was ratified by the resurrection of Jesus. It could not be changed for people.
• The Old Testament or Covenant had an appropriate punishment for EVERY transgression.
• If you did the crime, you did the time.
• A “transgression” would be a “stepping over the established line.” If God told you to do something and you did not do it, you were in line for punishment. If you did what God told you not to do, you were in line to be punished, no matter who you were.
• There was a penalty for everything you could do wrong, children disobeying parents, adultery, stealing, immorality, touching the Ark of the Covenant.
• God is a just and fair God so every penalty was a fair one, one that you earned.
• The Bible tells us that every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty. Disobedience is the unwillingness to hear. A sin from neglecting to hear what God says.
• The gist of verse two is that God did what He said He would do. If He did that with the Old Covenant, then what about the New?
• Verse 3 asks a good question considering that the book of Hebrews was written to show the superiority of the New Covenant as compared to the Old.
• If the punishment in the Old was death for many of the offenses, the punishment for those who neglect the new must be worse than death! What could that be?
• The first part of verse 3 asks, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
• What are we escaping? A fate worse than death when we neglect our faith to the point of drifting away.
• When we have been given the gift of salvation, much is expected of us. In the church we have gotten to the point where we are afraid to let people know that because they may quit coming.
• This is why I do not want to rush people to salvation; they need to be sure they want to do it because the stakes are high if they then reject Jesus.
• Verse 3 calls our salvation GREAT!
• Turn to verses 3-4 with me.
• SLIDE #8
• Hebrews 2:3–4 (ESV) It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
• SLIDE #9
III. The evidence of how great our gift is.
• Why are the stakes so high? What make our salvation so great a gift?
• Before we get into verses 3-4, we need to realize our salvation came at great cost!
• SLIDE #10
• John 3:16 (ESV) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
• We also see something in verses 3-4.
• Jesus Himself spoke the message. His ministry was public.
• The Apostles themselves heard the message and could attest to it.
• God also bore witness to our gift by the following:
o Signs. Purpose to point To God.
o Wonders. The effect on the viewers.
o Various miracles. Focus on the power it took to perform the signs and wonders.
o Gifts of the Spirit. Probably the powers that the Apostles were empowered to do and pass to other people.
• WOW!
CONCLUSION
• Can we just coast our way into heaven? NO. God’s desire for us is to be with Him in Heaven, but He loves you enough not to force you into the Kingdom.
• We are called to pay closer attention to the wonderful gift of salvation we have been given.
• How are you doing with your great salvation? Are you trying to coast into heaven?
• Are you doing little to nothing with the gift you have been given?
• What kind of fruit are we displaying in our lives?
• We pay attention to our great salvation because we Love the one who secured it for us!
• Are you paying attention to God or are you preoccupied with things that really don’t matter?
• I really hope that each one of us will take our faith seriously. God paid too high a price to lose people. God loves you so much; He wants to spend eternity with you!
