Drifting Away
by Kyle Ellison
The Bible warns Christians that there is a reality of drifting away from the Lord if we are not careful.
Have you ever been enjoying a day in the ocean only to look up and realize you are far past where you entered the water? Perhaps you didn’t even realize you were now hundreds of feet down the shoreline!
You see, drifting from the Lord can be just this subtle. Can I share a significant symptom that almost always manifests when drifting begins? As a preacher, I can tell you that almost always, the first significant sign of drifting in the life of a Christian is a developing indifference toward whether they attend the church assembly or not. Now, I realize some circumstances prevent this, but those drifting will often be seen doing everything else in their life, but cannot be found on Sunday when God’s people gather.
Do you know what is happening? They are drifting. They do not push, prioritize, and long for worship with fellow brothers and sisters. It starts with a miss here, a miss there, and then the saying is true! “The more you miss it, the less you ‘miss’ it!”
As one drifts, one becomes weaker in one's faith, compromising a bit here, allowing this sin, overlooking this sin, and participating in that sin. What is happening? They are drifting!
Brothers and sisters, drifting can happen; before you know it, a shipwreck is imminent! Examine yourself, be honest, and ask if you have drifted.
Just as Israel had a habit of doing, so do we tend to backslide into a place of danger, and worst of all, our souls are at stake in such times as these. If you are drifting, will you make it right?
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).
“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).
We often see people who fall away from the Lord, get weak, disappear from the assembly, and the next communication they get from us is some form of letter communicating discipline. This is not God’s plan. If those who are weak are not being bombarded with love, cards, encouragement, and care, then what fellowship is there to withdraw?
We can hardly expect people to be saddened by losing something that did not even exist. Give this excerpt a read!
“Removal of fellowship was a serious tool Jesus wanted His church to use to bring about repentance.
The natural implication, of course, is that the fellowship and love of the church would be so valuable and so sorely missed that it would be hurtful to have it taken from one’s life. Where threat of eternal punishment is sometimes too distant to motivate people, showing them the immediate price tag of sin through the loss of family is God's way of showing the sinner just how painful sin is. However, if the threat were simply ‘You have to go somewhere else on Sunday’ — essentially what it amounts to now-the correction would hold little chance of effecting change. When Christ's church is such a small part of its peoples lives, having it taken away feels like a rather small cost.
However, if the church were something more, if it were truly the family and support system we see in the Scriptures, being cut off from such a situation would be devastating. The distinction between being part of the church and separated from it would be noticeably different, which was clearly God's intention.
In the institutional, business-like model of church, the guilty party can simply move on to the next one, akin to getting kicked out of McDonald's and walking across the street to Wendy's. But if there exists within a congregation something that simply can't be found elsewhere because it is powered by God and shared among people who have sacrificed everything for Christ, one can't just replace that by driving to join a church down the street or in the next town. It only works this way if church is more.” [Jack Wilkie, Church Reset]
