"The Dangers of Drifting"

John 6: 60-71

I remember one hot summer's day when we went to the beach. It was a crowded

beach with lots of people. It was a windy day and my cousins loved the big waves in

Lake Michigan. We had entered the water straight down from where our moms had

placed the beach blanket. But after 30 minutes of splashing and jumping waves, we

turned around to look for our moms and they weren't there! I thought they left

without us. Then we saw them - 50 yards to our left. Without realizing it, the waves

and current had slowly moved us down the beach. We had drifted away from our

first reference point.

In our gospel story, Jesus senses that some followers are beginning to drift away

from him. "Because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went

about with him." (John 6:66) This still happens today. People can drift away from a

close relationship with the Lord. How does this happen? And what can we do to

stay on course with Christ and grow spiritually?

THE CURRENTS THAT PULL US

It is not natural and therefore normal to be able to stay in the same place for very

long. Let me mention three currents that tug on our lives.

1 - Public Opinion - What the Crowd Thinks. Jesus did not take a poll to see

what would please the people the most in order to get more followers. However,

some disciples took a poll, voted and agreed that Jesus' teaching was too hard to

swallow. So they left. The pull of what others think can influence us. Em Griffin in

his book The Mind Changers describes an experiment done by Solomon Asch with

groups of 12 people. They were brought into a room where four lines of unequal

length were displayed. They had to decide which two were the same length and

publicly vote for their choice. Person after person after person (11 in all) voted for the

wrong line--because they had all been told to ahead of time. The one individual who

was in the dark couldn't imagine how in the world all these seemingly normal people

could all choose the wrong line. When it was his turn to vote, he had to decide, "Do

I go with what I know my senses are telling me, or do I go with the crowd?" 1/3 of

those tested caved in to group pressure and changed their vote to agree with their

peers. (Em Griffin, The Mindchangers, Tyndale House, 1976, p. 193ff)

You could say "peer pressure" causes us to suspend individual judgment and

become superficial and juts go along with the crowd. But if you don't rock the

boat--you will drift.

2- Priorities - What You Think is Important. Everyone operates from a list of what

they believe is important to them. The list becomes visible by watching how they

spend two things - time and money. In the past, when there was a Christian

majority influence, we shared this list: God, Family, Work, Church, Friends, and

Sports. In today's culture, which has shifted into a higher priority? We need to be

careful that our enthusiasm for sports does not become a false God and take our

time and money away from the worship of the Lord God! We become easily

distracted. Here's an illustration from the world of sports:

There is a story involving Yogi Berra, the well-known catcher for the New York

Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was the chief power hitter for the

Milwaukee Braves. The teams were playng in the World Series, and as usual Yogi

was keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended to pep up his teammates on the

one hand, and distract the Milwaukee batters on the other. As Aaron came to the

plate, Yogi tried to distract him by saying, "Henry, you're holding the bat wrong.

You're supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark." Aaron didn't say

anything, but when the next pitch came he hit it into the left-field bleachers. After

rounding the bases and tagging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi Berra and

said, "I didn't come up here to read." (Nehemiah, Learning to Lead, J.M. Boice,

Revell, 1990, p. 38 )

"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," Jesus urged. Remembering

God's priorities will save you from drifting by distractions.

Passivity: Complacent and Goal-less

By lack of attention and apathy things fall apart. You can drift in your marriage

relationship by being complacent and not showing interest. Why do some

marriages break up? Not because of adultery, abuse or alcoholism but by shear

apathy. "We just drifted apart." Like a boat without a rudder, we just go with the flow

without a care. Why do businesses lose customers - They don't pay attention to

them - they don't care! "Why aren't you coming to church?" we ask. "Oh, no real

reason, just got out of the habit I guess." Listen to this definition of complacency:

"Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on

the brain.

The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of

things as they might be. "Good enough" becomes today's watchword and

tomorrow's standard.

Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the

new.

Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course -- downhill. They draw false

strength from looking back." (Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, Page 15)

The ultimate danger of drifting is shipwrecking your faith. The conscience has

sounded the alarm time again but it goes ignored. Paul said, "By rejecting

conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in faith." (1 Tim 1:19)

These are some of the currents I have noticed that pull on me and cause me to fall

away from Christ. But to stay balanced, God has given us a "steering wheel" to hold

onto to stay on course. Let me explain. Imagine yourself as a ship sailing in the

sea. The world you live in, like the sea, is uncertain. You can have rough seas and

calm currents. God has given you a life to lead to him. He is drawing you to a

glorious destination and has equipped you with the resources to get there. Your

hand is at the helm and there are four spokes to guide you:

1. THE WORD OF GOD: The Compass. When Jesus asked Peter if he was going

to drift away, Peter responded, "Where should we go, you have the words of eternal

life." By reading, meditating and understanding the Word of God you will grow

closer to the Lord. The Word of God is our compass that points true north.

2. PRAY: The Connection. Every ship needs communication equipment to stay in

touch with the harbor. Prayer is simply talking and listening to God. God speaks to

us in the Word and we speak back to God in prayer. We can stay on track if we

pause to talk to God about our joys and struggles. Paul wrote this, "Pray about

everything." We know that we deepen relationships when we communicate on

deeper and deeper levels. There is power in prayer. And that spiritual power of God

can keep us on course with Christ.

3. GROUP: The Crew. When the crowds started leaving Jesus, don't you think it

made Peter and John a bit nervous. Maybe they felt alone. But they had a small

group of friends who shared a similar priority and similar desire to stay on course

with Jesus. When we find a "crew" of people who we can support and who can

support us, we are less likely to drift away. We need each other. The Bible says,

"Build one another up." In a stormy world that wants to break us up and drown our

spiritual zeal, we need others to build us up in faith. Find a small group of fellow

believers to grow with.

4. SERVE: The Caring. Lets remember what the grand purpose of the journey is all

about - LOVE. We grow closer to the Lord as we reach out to those who are "not in

the boat." Jesus loved people by serving them. As we serve others and give of

ourselves we live as Christ did. This is the outcome of the following Christ for he

said, "Love one another as I have loved you."

Vision and Perspective also keep us on course. When I took my eyes off my

mother at the beach and was distracted with my own pleasure playing in the wives,

I got lost. The Christian's vision is on Jesus. "Set your mind on things that are

above and not on earthly things." (Col 3:2) Without vision we perish. Chuck

Swindoll tells this story:

It was Flight 401 bound for Miami from New York City with a load of holiday

passengers. As the huge aircraft approached the Miami Airport for its landing, a

light that indicates proper employment of the landing gear failed to come on. The

plane flew in a large, looping circle over the swamps of the Everglades while the

cockpit crew checked out the light failure. Their

question was this, had the landing gear actually not deployed or was it just the light

bulb that was defective?

To begin with, the flight engineer fiddled with the bulb. He tried to remove it, but it

wouldn't budge. Another member of the crew tried to help out...and then another. By

and by, if you

can believe it, all eyes were on the little light bulb that refused to be dislodged from

its socket. No one noticed that the plane was losing altitude. Finally, it dropped

right into a swamp. Many were killed in that plane crash. While an experienced

crew of high-priced and seasoned pilots messed around with a seventy-five-cent

light bulb, an entire airplane and many of its passengers were lost. The crew

momentarily forgot the most basic of all rules of the air -- "Don't forget to fly the

airplane!"

The same thing can happen to the local church. The preacher and elders can be so

busy fighting petty fires and focusing so much of their attention on insignificant

issues that they lose sight of what church is all about. The church can have so

many activities, programs, projects, committee meetings, banquets, and

community involvements -- so many wheels spinning without really accomplishing

anything of eternal significance -- that the congregation forgets its primary ojective.

Many churches are like that impressive invention which had hundreds of wheels,

coils, gears, pulleys, belts, bells and lights which all went around and around and

flashed at the touch

of a button. When the inventor was asked about the function of the weird machine,

he replied, "What does it do? Oh, it doesn't do anything, but doesn't it run

beautifully?"

Let's not be like Flight 401 or the invention that doesn't do anything! Our primary

objective is to win this lost world to Jesus Christ. (from Dropping Your Guard by

Charles R. Swindoll)

Amen.