Waging War Against Drift - Ask Pastor John

Video from Desiring God

Waging War Against Drift - Ask Pastor John

"Audio Transcript

God did not make us to float lazily along with the trends in pop media, like a jellyfish, drifting this way and that way with the currents of pop culture. No, he made us to be dolphins who cut against the currents of pop culture. That, of course, Pastor John, is a pair of your favorite metaphors to use here. And this jellyfish-and-dolphin metaphor comes up when we talk about cultural pressures like those of cussing and using crude language, or on the currents of lust. For those examples, see the APJ book on pages 137–38 and 322 to read how the Bible warns us against cultural drift into crude joking and lust.

I’m thinking about currents today because we’re talking about drifting today. And we’re talking about drifting because we just read the haunting “lest we drift” text of Hebrews 2:1 in our Bible reading yesterday, a very sobering warning against drifting away from Christ, and the topic of this question from a 24-year-old young woman named Haley.

“Pastor John, thank you for the APJ podcast and all that it has given to me over the years. I’m writing because I want to understand Hebrews 2:1–3 better, specifically the warnings about the dangers of drifting away — not in outright rebellion, but in neglect, and the slow, imperceptible process of losing grip on the greatness of Christ. Lately, I feel this happening in my own heart. I’m not resisting Christ, but my affections for him feel duller, my prayers weaker, my longing for his presence fainter. It’s not that I’ve abandoned the truth, but I can sense the current of the world tugging at me. I don’t want to wake up one day and find myself far downstream, wondering how I got there. How does this drifting happen? And more importantly, how do I fight it? How can I rekindle the wonder of salvation and anchor myself more firmly in Christ before the pull becomes too strong?”

Thanksgiving and Prayer

The first thing I want to say to Haley, and all of us who have tasted the frightening seasons of spiritual dullness and fear of drifting into a kind of cold indifference, which would not only make us useless, but would ruin our souls — the first thing I want to say is this: Be thankful. Oh, be so thankful you are aware of what is happening.

That’s the first great discovery, which leads us back to the sweetness and authenticity of walking in fellowship with Jesus. And I say that because, when Paul tells us not to be anxious for anything, not to fear, he doesn’t just say, “Pray about your fears.” He says, “Pray about them with thanksgiving” (see Philippians 4:6). So, right in the middle of our impending darkness, we are to mingle our desperation with thanksgiving. That’s the first thing I would say. Be thankful, Haley, that you are not blind to what is happening.

Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” I have tried to remind myself and the church I served that life is war. At the end of his life, Paul said, “I have fought the good fight” all the way to the end (2 Timothy 4:7).

Life is war. And we used to say at Bethlehem, “You do not know what prayer is for until you know that life is war.” Prayer is not an intercom to ask the butler for another pillow in the den. Prayer is a wartime walkie-talkie to headquarters. “We need air cover right now, God, or we’re going to be swept away and overrun by the enemy of unbelief.”

Rowing with the Holy Spirit

However, Hebrews uses another image besides war — namely, rowing our boat against the current. Life is like rowing your boat upstream against the current of secular culture and our own sinful flesh. That’s what he means when he says, “Don’t drift. Don’t drift. If you stop rowing against your own sinful nature, you will drift toward the Niagara Falls of destruction.”

I can hear someone say, “No, no, no, no. The Holy Spirit is like an outboard motor on the back of the boat. You don’t need to fight and work as a Christian. Just turn on the motor.” Well, you can say that if you ignore a lot of biblical texts. I think it would be better to say that the Holy Spirit is the strength in our back and our arms to keep us rowing.

So, the first thing the writer tells us about this danger is to warn us that it’s real, that drifting toward destruction and shipwreck of your faith are real possibilities if you don’t heed what he has said. “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” That’s Hebrews 2:3.

“It’s the power of God’s promise that keeps us rowing upstream against the deadly current.”

Here’s how he puts the warning in the next chapter. He says, “We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” That’s Hebrews 3:14. That’s the opposite of drifting. Hold firm to your confidence to the end. Don’t drift away. So, in the book of Hebrews, (1) God tells us to pay close attention to the precious gospel, and (2) he warns us of the dangers of not paying attention.

More Tools from Hebrews

Now, what else does he do to help Haley and us all not drift into destruction? He mentions at least six things, and I’ll just mention them briefly. This is for our help. This is for our perseverance. This is for our rowing until we’re in heaven.

1. Looking to Christ

He tells us to rivet our attention on Jesus. Hebrews 3:1–2: “Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful.” Or Hebrews 12:2: “[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” It’s no mistake that there are four Gospels in the New Testament — not one, four. Four different portraits of Jesus. Look. Look at him. Look at him every day. That’s why they’re there.

2. Inspired by Leaders

Be inspired by faithful, persevering Christian leaders. Hebrews 13:7: “Remember your leaders. . . . Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” This is true of living leaders, and it’s especially true of dead leaders whose biographies are so precious for stirring us up to press on. Oh, how significant biographies have been in my life to kindle my faith and hope when they have been languishing.

3. Exhorted by Others

Don’t fight alone. Don’t row your boat by yourself. Exhort others and seek to be exhorted. Hebrews 3:12–13: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away [that’s drifting] from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” What a clear word from God that the antidote to drifting is to hear brothers and sisters exhort us with the word of God — even daily, he says.

4. Strengthened by Discipline

Learn to interpret your afflictions as loving acts of discipline from your heavenly Father. They’re intended to help us persevere in faith and holiness. In Hebrews 12, after the writer explains that the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves, he says, “Therefore” — and that’s the key here: because of this discipline, “lift your drooping hands” (Hebrews 12:12). That is, put them back on the oars. Put them on the oars. In other words, because you know the good purposes of God in your afflictions, don’t lose heart and let your hands droop and fall from the oars and drift to destruction. Put your back into it. Row, row on, because God is for you even in your afflictions.

5. Meditating on Promises

Make good use of the promises of God and the hope of great reward. For example, Hebrews 13:5. How shall we not drift into the love of money? Answer: “Keep your life free from love of money . . . [because] he has said” — there’s the promise — “‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” It’s the power of God’s promise that keeps us rowing upstream against the deadly current of the love of money.

6. Depending Through Prayer

And finally, the book ends with a prayer, a prayer to God by the author, that God would work in and through all these other exhortations. Hebrews 13:20: “Now may the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us” — the rowing — “that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20–21).

So, we take all these biblical strategies for rowing against the current of culture and sin, and we saturate them with prayer every day. I suppose that alongside the prayer that God would hallow his name in my life, the prayer I have prayed most often is this: “Keep me. You have died for me. You have bought me. Hold on to me. Keep me. Don’t let me stop rowing.” And I hope you’ll join me in that lifelong prayer." from the Transcript

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy. Read more about John.

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