Pay Attention

Pay Attention! Hebrews 2:1-4 Emmanuel Christian Church 2.16.25 INTRODUCTION: It’s HARD to play attention! I remember back in Elementary School, looking out the window at the farm just across the road. The more I looked at the farm, the more the teacher sounded like the one the Peanuts cartoon(“Mwa, mwa, mwa”)! It’s even harder these days to pay attention- because so many things are competing for our attention! We are doing the backstroke in a media flood these days- from every direction, continuously, relentlessly! And all they want is our ATTENTION! PROPOSITION: But, not everything deserves our attention. As a matter of fact, most things need to be ignored! On the other hand, there are things worth our attention, and one thing that deserves our undivided attention- that “one thing” is God’s thing, and it’s what our text for this morning is all about.. The Dangerous DriftHebrews 2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. This “drift” is a spiritual one. What does spiritual “drift” look like? How would one know that they are spiritually drifting? Here’s the diagnosis:

Lack of spiritual participation (Church attendance).
Lack of spiritual connection (teaching & being taught).
Lack of spiritual service (doing for others according to your spiritual gifting). How does one “slip” into the “drift”?
Passive neglect. It’s not the rejection of Christ, it’s the substitution of Christ. The Apostle John (one of Jesus’ inner circle and the Apostle whom Jesus loved) put it this way… 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. John identifies two substitutes for “love of the Father”:
“Cravings” & “Lust” - a longing for the things of the world (“the world” occurs 6x in these three verses!)
“Boasting” - Pride. APPLICATION: Avoiding the “drift” from connection with the Body of Christ is a practical matter of doing a few simple things. All of them involve living each day for someone other than your self. The Apostle Peter, throughout his first letter gives us the list: 1 Peter 1:22 “…love one another deeply, from the heart.” 1 Peter 3:8 “…live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.” 1 Peter 4:9 Oﬀer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 1 Peter 5:5 “…All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another…” 1 Peter 5:14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. News flash: You can’t do this on Social media! Yes! You need to have real- life contact with real, live people! And later on in Hebrews, Paul puts it this way: Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
The Drift of Distractions. Life is filled with them! When they become the focus of our attention, the drift begins! Jesus warned us in His parable of sower: Mark 4:16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Jesus cautions us about three things that can distract us and start us spiritually drifting:
Persecution for our faith. Suggestion: Don’t expect people to stand and applaud your faith in Christ. Look for God’s approval instead!
Worries of this life. Believe Jesus when He said: John 16:33 “… in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
The “delusion” of wealth. Believe God’s Word when it says: 1 Timothy 6:9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. APPLICATION: Preventing drift is what anchors are for! If your anchor is anything other than Jesus- you’re ALREADY drifting! And if you’re drifting, you’d better look out for what’s ahead… The Disastrous DispatchHebrews 2:2-3a For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?
The key word here is “ignore”. It means to regard something carelessly, to treat lightly.
This passage begs a simple question: “What happened when the message of angels was ignored?”
Sodom and Gomorrah were turned into a glass parking lot! (Genesis

Balaam nearly had his head hacked oﬀ! (Numbers 22:22)
King Herod was struck down in the middle of a public appearance - and was eaten by worms! (Acts 12:23) Next question: “If that is what happened when men ignored the message of angels, what will happen to those who ignore the message of God’s own Son?” Scripture tells us there will be a powerful, instant, change of perspective among all who have ignored and scoﬀed at the Gospel on the Day Christ returns: Revelation 6:12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Revelation 6:15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” APPLICATION: Unchecked “drift” always leads one to “ignore” the Gospel and treat it with contempt. Later on in his letter Paul issues Christians this warning:Hebrews 10:26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? Christian, pay attention! Don’t drift, Don’t ignore the grace of God! The Divine Deliverance Hebrews 2:3b-4 This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Jesus Christ is mankind’s ONLY hope! The Apostle Peter spoke the ultimate truth to power in his day when he said: Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Let’s be honest with ourselves about God’s salvation oﬀer- it is an “All or nothing” proposition. You’re either all in, or not in at all. Prudence demands that making a commitment like that is going to require some powerful proof of trustworthiness, and that’s exactly what we have in these verses. Paul makes the point that…
The message of God’s Great Salvation is proved by four witnesses:
Announced by the Lord Himself whose life, words and actions fulfilled over 300 Old Testament prophecies.
Confirmed by Jesus’ disciples who all faced martyrdom instead or renouncing their faith.
Proved by the testimony of God’s supernatural power through signs, wonders and miracles.
Evidenced by the distribution of Spiritual Gifts that support God’s call upon our own lives. CONCLUSION: You breathe your last, and the next thing you know - you’re looking at Jesus! In that moment, the ONLY thing that will matter is what you did in regard to the salvation He oﬀered you.
Did you accept it and stick with it as a faithful disciple of His?
Did you accept it and slowly drift away?
Did you drift so far that you ended up ignoring Him altogether? God says, while you still have the breath of life, the time is now to pay “careful attention”