"don't Waste Your Opportunity To Go To Heaven" Series

Perhaps you’ve heard of “lawn chair Larry?” On July 2, 1982 Larry Walters and his girlfriend Carol Van Deusen made history when they decided to purchase 43 weather balloons and purchase enough helium to fill them at their local California Toy Time Balloons store.

When they returned home, they attached the 43 balloons to a lawn chair, Larry got into the chair (not strapped) armed with a pellet gun, a CB Radio, sandwiches, beer, a camera, and a parachute. As Carol started filling the balloons, the chair began to rise up into the afternoon sky.

Larry later explained that he had always dreamed of becoming a pilot but was rejected from the US Air Force because of poor eyesight.

I might add that he may have also struggled with on his mental assessment as well because as the lawn chair rose high above his home on 1633 West 7th Street in San Pedro, California he failed to understand that the wind current would cause him to drift away like a rocket, so after 45 minutes he found himself rising to 16,000 feet. (3 miles)

Soon, two commercial airlines (Delta and TWA) approaching the Long Beach Airport reported passing a man on a lawn chair.

Larry finally got the pellets to penetrate the balloons and he slowly descended to the ground and got caught in a powerline that caused a 20-minute blackout, resulted in a $4,000 fine for operating an illegal aircraft, and earning him later the 1993 Darwin Award for complete stupidity.

Later he said that he was completely aware of what he was doing but did not take into account the drifting that would take place because of the high-altitude wind speeds.

Many publications have declared that, Larry in that one act, became one of the most famous “drifters” and “dumbest” people in American history.

Application:

What is interesting is that in the book of Hebrews, in the heels of the writer speaking about how incredible Jesus is; he speaks about “drifting” past true salvation and how foolish it is to neglect such a great salvation.

The fact is: Hell is undoubtedly full of people who never actively opposed Jesus Christ, but who simply neglected the good news and were not willing to receive His grace and commit their lives to Him,

This tragedy makes Hebrews 2: 1-4 extremely important, urgent, and necessary to share.

This passage is almost like a Biblical warning siren. It screams from the pages of the text. It breaks out in an outburst of concern. It calls for a reaction. A response.

It’s a wake-up call to those who have drifted into the world and drifted off to sleep spiritually to wake up and become conscious of what is happening in their lives. He tells us: “Don’t waste your opportunity to go to heaven.”

Transition: Satan uses three things to waste away your opportunity for heaven. He uses:

I. Tool #1- Apathy and Lack of Concern About Salvation

vs. 1- “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.”

Explanation:

Today, as we continue our study in the Book of Hebrews we are introduced to the word “drift or drifter.”

The word is used 8 times in the Bible to describe people who “drifted away” from God:

a) In Psalm 119:10 the Psalmist wrote: “ I have sought you with all my heart, do not let me drift away from your commands.

b) In the ministry of Jesus we read in John 8:9: “ Now when they heard this, they began to drift

away one at a time, starting from the older to the younger...”

The word “drift” is borrowed from the nautical world. It is the word “pararreo” which means: “to drift”- “flow by”—or “to be washed away.”

As the writer of Hebrews comes to a group of believers and turns on the warning light and says: “...pay close attention to what you’ve heard, so that we do not drift away.”

This morning, we will take communion and one of the purposes of communion is to draw us back in. To remind us of Jesus. To remember the stories of the gospel. To be reminded of the cross and to come back home. It calls and draws us like a prodigal to the table of the Lord and to be restored to fellowship and closeness with Jesus. Yet, this table and today’s text is designed to bring you home if you have drifted.

The writer of Hebrews communicates something we know to be true today; there are a lot of things that distract us, capture our focus, and keep us from noticing the most important things in life.

Illustration: I didn’t see that coming stories

Have you ever said: “I didn’t see that coming?” I love the “I didn’t see that coming” stories out. There. Here are a few: