Summary
Pastor Safrit preaches from Hebrews 2:1-3, emphasizing the importance of having a fixed direction and focused discipline as we enter 2024. He warns against drifting through life without purpose and encourages the congregation to set meaningful goals that align with their faith. By anchoring themselves in Jesus and committing to spiritual growth, they can navigate the uncertainties of the new year with confidence and intention.
Welcome and Church Information
Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. Well, great job, children.
You did a fantastic job. If you want to send your child first grade and under to Children's Church, that'll be available. Miss Holly's going to be teaching that. If you have your Bibles, we're going to go to Hebrews chapter 2, where we'll be at this morning, Hebrews chapter 2.
And we'll be preaching on opening the door in 2024. And I often don't get to preach on the very last day of the year, but it just so happens this year we do, and I'm excited about that. Last couple of years, we've always been in Gatlinburg.
And so it's a great time to be here and preaching this morning. And so 2024 is on the precipice of us.
I know some of us make—how many of you make New Year's resolutions? Not many in here. All right, good.
Whatever that may be in our life, some of us may set goals. Some of us may have visions for the future. And it's good to have those things.
It's good to have things to shoot for. It's good to have things to look forward to. And in this new year, as we begin to go forward, we must understand that there is power and there is faith and joy if we determine to live in victory in 2024.
And we, as a church, have an awesome opportunity to go forward in a great way. And today, I want to put this word picture in your mind. I want us to think of life as an ocean, right? Oceans have tides. Oceans have storms. Oceans have ups and downs and currents.
And sometimes oceans can even be peaceful. And life in the same way can have ups and downs and tides and turmoil situations and peace. And so as we go through today, I want us to think about that. And as we think about oceans,
how many of you have ever been deep sea fishing before? I've been one time. I threw up. And then I caught three halibut. It was great.
But as we begin to go through this life, we all have one thing in common about 2024. This was a resounding statement that came to me this week. And I wanted to, in my deep Rowan County education, this is what came to me. You ready?
Everyone in here is in uncharted waters when we go into 2024. Because no one in here has lived one day in 2024 yet. We don't know what it's going to hold.
Uncertainty of the Future
We don't know the future that it's going to hold.
We don't know the comfort that it's going to hold. And yet, every single one of us are in the exact same boat. So this morning, as we look at a couple of verses in Hebrews,
I want us to allow us to bring our attention closer to what it should be. And so let's stand. We'll read these verses. They'll be on the screen as well. Hebrews 1 verses 1, 2. I'm sorry. Hebrews 2 verses 1 through 3.
The Bible says, Therefore, we ought to give more earnest heed or attention to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
For if the word spoken by the angel was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation,
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard him?
Lord, we love you. We thank you this morning for what you've done for us. I thank you for these kids and the work they put into it and been able to switch the program from a couple of weeks ago to now. And Lord, just their willingness to move and change.
And I pray that you'll be with this service this morning, be with this message, and it'll uplift your name and help us as we move forward as a church. We love you. In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
As I was thinking of the ocean, I began to think back to many years ago. I was eight years old. It's the earliest memory I have of being to the ocean. And as I was there, it was at Myrtle Beach and Ocean Lakes.
We had a camper. We went camping all the time as a kid. And I can remember that year specifically because it's just the earliest memory I have of going.
And we were there and we're making friends and we're at the campsite and we're riding our bikes.
Has that ever happened to you guys where you all just met random people and you just struck up a conversation? And we went to the beach this particular afternoon and we're out there playing and we're building sandcastles and we're having a great summer day.
And me and some of the friends that I had made, we decided we were going to go into the ocean. And my mom, she said, when you go out there,
stay in front of me. I thought, okay, that's pretty easy. And so we're out there playing and it was probably 30, 45 minutes, maybe an hour.
I don't remember. Time flies when you're a kid, right? And so we're out there and we're playing in the water. And it remembered in my mind, I need to find my mom. And so I looked up at the beach and mom was nowhere to be found. I began to get anxious.
I began to worry a little bit. I began to panic a little bit.
Maybe you've been there where you don't know what's going on and you can't find mom. And so I ran back to the beach and I began searching panically and frantically.
And I began trying to find mom and I'm going up and down the beach. And finally, I go and I find my mom and she's way to the right.
I felt like a half a mile down the beach. And I go to my mom and I said, mom, you told me to stay in front of you and you moved.
Why did you move? I was mad. I was angry.
I'm, well, what are you doing? And she looked at me and she said, I didn't move. The current took you.
And I'll never forget that because it was so easy for me to understand that by me doing nothing, just playing, I began to drift.
Mom didn't move. I did. And so often in our life, if we don't pay close attention to what we're doing, as this verse says in verse one, we will begin to drift or slip as the Bible says there.
The worst thing that can happen to us in 2024 church is for us to just drift through what life happens and not do anything on purpose.
What are your goals this morning? As I mentioned this morning in Sunday school, maybe it's a Bible reading goal. Maybe it's a goal to lose weight.
Maybe it's a goal to attend church more. Maybe it's a goal to have more family devotions. Maybe it's a goal to do more prayer and grow in your faith.
Maybe it's a goal to go through a discipleship and go one-on-one on purpose through a book or through a study. But we all have to have goals because if we don't have goals, we'll just simply drift. And drifting always leads to us being farther and farther away from God.
And so this morning, how can we move forward in 2024? I titled this, Opening the Door in 2024.
A little play on words there. And so as we look through this very quickly before we eat, verse one starts out by saying, Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. So I'll label it like this. Decide on a fixed direction.
Importance of Fixed Direction
Church, this morning we have to have a fixed direction that we are going to go. If you don't decide anything, you will drift.
You don't have to decide to drift, but you will drift unless you decide not to drift. I'm going to say that again. You don't have to decide to drift, but you will drift unless you decide not to drift. In our life, there is a constant pull away from God.
Imagine with me a moment when you were back in fifth grade and you began to learn about magnets.
The other day, my son was in fifth grade and went to a science museum with him and they had all the magnets on the table and they began to show these magnets repelling against each other. North and north repel. South and south repel. They're not attracted to each other.
And this is the thought of the Christian life.
We are constantly repelling because our self is repelling against what God wants or a rebel against what God wants us to do. And so the Bible clearly lays out that we must pay close attention because if not, we will drift. Drifting happens without you ever realizing it.
Eight-year-old boy sitting out in the ocean. I did not realize that I was moving further and further away from the anchor point. But yet I was. And because I learned that at age eight, I have taught that to my children.
If you're out in the ocean and we're out there, I tell them to constantly work back because the current is going to constantly pull you away from that point. We must correct our course because the longer we delay, the further the drift. Most people never plan to fail.
Most people, it's not on your New Year's resolutions.
It's not on your vision for this next year. My vision is I want to fail at sports.
I want to fail math class. I want to fail in my marriage. I want to fail in my job. I want to get fired this year. That's not most people's job description or their vision for the future. But they simply don't plan anything and therefore they fail.
And so if we don't have a fixed direction of where we're going, we will always inevitably fail. And so as we think through goals, as we think through a fixed direction, I want us to ask this one question this morning. And this portion is, how can you tell if your goal is God-given?
Right? We talked about this morning in Sunday school, righteousness and self-righteousness.
How can we tell if my goal is a self-righteous goal or a God-given goal? And so I found these four questions.
I thought they were fantastic. And I want us to sort of ponder them together. The first is this. Can you pray over this goal? Maybe you want to jot these down maybe on the back of your notes. Can you pray over this goal?
Is this a goal that I can pray over? I want to see my family grow closer to the Lord this year. Oh, we can pray over that. Right?
I want to see my kid get a scholarship. Well, we can pray over that. But is it God-given? And we begin to evaluate these goals through this metric. Does it, the second, does it create enough spiritual enthusiasm necessary to see it fulfilled?
Does it create a spiritual drive in your life that you want to see this goal fulfilled in your life? Because as we begin to have a direction, we begin to have goals that lead us in that way.
Number three, does it demand the very best in us? Does this goal demand me to be the very best of my life? Or is it just simply a self-centered goal? And the number four question is this. Does it touch every area of your life?
Does your goal touch every area of your life? Is it so life-encompassing that every area of your life is driving you to reach this goal? Driving you to move forward this year?
Helen Keller. Have you ever heard of Helen Keller before? Hopefully most everyone's hand in here. Helen Keller was born blind and deaf.
And if you've ever seen the movie or read her biography of her where she had a person that lived in with her and helped take care of her and began to teach her to speak and to hear based
on vibrations of the vocal movement and the breath that was coming out of them, she was able to teach her to speak and to hear through vibrations.
And later in her life, the question was asked to Helen Keller. I thought it was a fantastic question. This is the question. Is there anything worse than being blind?
It's a blind lady who can't hear, who was taught how to hear and taught how to speak. And her response was fascinating. It said this. Yes.
There is something worse than being blind. This is what it is. She said, having sight without vision. Being able to see but not know where you're going.
That would be worse than being blind. Because at least if you're blind, you don't know where you're going. And church this morning,
if we're going to have a vision, if we're going to have a reason to move forward for God's glory, we must ask ourselves, what is our vision? Where are we heading? What are we doing this morning for the sake of the gospel?
Need for Focused Discipline
So the first thing we have to do is have a fixed direction. But then number two, we must determine a focused discipline. Right? We must determine a focused discipline. Verse three says, how shall we escape if we neglect? Direction without discipline is simply a joke. Right?
Let's say I have a goal this year to lose 10 pounds. That's a great goal.
It's a great thing to work for. I can get excited about that. God, I can, you know, it's healthy. God's telling me to take care of my body. But if I said, you know what, every single night I'm just going to sit down and eat a bag of M&Ms. Got a great goal.
But there's no discipline behind that goal. Right? It's just simply words on a paper. So we have to ask ourselves, what is the discipline that's driving us? Have you ever seen a few people that were in a little rowboat?
Maybe you took kids out and they had the oars for the very first time. Maybe there's four or five kids on there, six kids. And they begin to have a direction.
They're going to go from one point of the lake to the other. And they begin to start out well. But then all of them begin to get out of sync. And they begin rowing with the same goal in mind.
But there's no discipline. And all of a sudden that boat that's going this way begins to turn. Right? You've seen it before. They begin to go in circles.
Because they all have great goals. We've got to get from this side to the other. And I've got this paddle. I've got this oar. And I'm going to move forward. But there's no discipline in the kids. There's no one there directing them in what to do.
And so therefore, they begin to spin in circles. And church, that's what it looks like when we begin to have no discipline. We begin to go in circles. Right?
You want to lose weight, but I'm going to eat everything I want to eat. I'm going to not change anything. I'm going to live like a slob. But I'm going to lose weight. There's no discipline there. There's no discipline there. Discipline helps us achieve our direction.
And this morning, the discipline that the Bible lays out for us is this, our salvation.
And it makes this statement, if we neglect such a great salvation, because this is the discipline that keeps us together. And so the question is, what makes our salvation great? And I've laid out four things through these passages here. The first one is this. It's great because of its conception.
You see, our religion that we believe in, that we believe that Jesus came and was born of a virgin and lived a perfect life for 33 years and then died on the cross for our sins, was conceived in
the heart and the mind of God. James Safer didn't think it up. Paul the apostle didn't think it up. Moses didn't think it up.
But God himself conceived it and looked down on creation and said, I'm going to offer a way of salvation. Look at the rest of Hebrews chapter 3, verse 3. How should we escape such a great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord?
The Lord spoke this plan into existence and it was executed by his perfect will.
And therefore, we can look at this and we can say this was conceived in the mind of God, not in the mind of man. And therefore, we have this calm assurance to know that what we believe in is from God. And it is a great salvation from God.
But not only is it a great conception, it is this conception, but it's confirmation.
Sharing the Gospel
You see, for 2,000 years, the disciples began to tell someone about what Jesus did.
And those people that heard it told someone else. And those people that heard it began to tell someone else. And for 2,000 years, someone has told someone else about Jesus. And we're able to stand here 2,000 years later and say, someone told me about Jesus.
Someone told me about this wonderful plan of redemption and grace and mercy so we can come to know Jesus as our Savior. Because you see here in verse 3, it continues on to say, and it was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
You see, it was confirmed. It was continued generation after generation.
In your bulletin this morning, I placed a little gospel track in there. Placed one in every bulletin. Because I want us to have a goal this week to hand this one track out to one person that doesn't attend church anywhere.
And I want to challenge us. Find someone that you can go to. Maybe it's a neighbor that you've never talked to. Maybe it's a person that moved in down the street and you can say, you know what? Can I tell you about something that changed my life?
Can I tell you about something that has radically changed the way I live? Would you join me at church? And maybe that conversation sparks into, well, what is that? And on the back is the plan of salvation.
How you can realize that God loves us. How you can realize that everyone's a sinner. How you can realize that there's a price that has to be paid. And that Jesus came to sacrifice for you. And even a simple prayer there.
But it starts by us doing what the disciples did 2,000 years ago. And going out and telling someone about Jesus.
And inviting that one person. And maybe you say, Pastor James, I don't need one. I need five.
I've got them all throughout the church. I've got them out here on the coffee station. I've got them up front here. I've got them in the back. You can pick up as many of these as you want. I ordered 2,000 of them.
Because I would love to see by halfway through the year for us to give out 2,000. And me to have to order more. And you come to me and you say, Pastor James, we're out and I need more.
I ordered more because we're able to tell people about Jesus the same way the disciples did 2,000 years ago.
Not only is its conception great and its confirmation. But it was great in its cost. Look down with me a couple of verses in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9.
It says, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels.
His name was Jesus. He was crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. He was made lower for the angels than me. Why did Jesus die?
Jesus died so that you and us can have a great salvation. You see, a couple of years ago, we sold a house in Idaho and we moved back to North Carolina. And we had purchased that house for $60,000.
And so as we were, and yeah, your jaws can probably drop when you hear that. Right?
Because that was, what was it, 11, 8 years ago when we, 12 years ago we purchased it. 8 years ago when we sold it. And so we began to think through and I got a realtor and the realtor came in and he shared with me some astonishing facts.
Right? We've got a piano up here, a baby grand piano. And let's say that we were going to get rid of this piano. And this morning we were going to auction it off. And I said,
well, do anyone here want to buy this piano? Let's say Bob in the back there, he said, you know what, I've been wanting a piano in my house and, you know, I'll pay $100 for that. And no one else in here spoke up. Well, the value of that piano is $100.
Bob walks out of here with a nice baby grand piano for $100. But let's say Terry steps up and Terry begins to play, like awesome as he does. Makes me invious every time I hear him. And he begins to play and tickle the ivories.
And we get some passerbys on the street that hear it and they step in and they say, what's that noise?
And you begin to hear that and you're like, man, I want that sound in my house. And all of a sudden Bob says, well, I want $100 for that. Well, Marty steps up and says, I want to pay $1,000.
And Brenda says, no, I really like that. I want to pay $10,000 for it. And some random guy comes in and says, I'll give a million dollars for that piano. Is the value of that piano still $100?
No, it's a million dollars because the value of that piano is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And this morning church,
the value of your soul is worth Jesus Christ coming into this world and dying for you and for me. That's the value of our soul. That's the value of my soul. Because Jesus said,
you're worth more than the creation itself and I'm going to come and I'm going to die for you so that you can live forever with me one day.
Value of Salvation
It's whatever someone's willing to pay for it. And Jesus was willing to pay for our soul with his life. That's what makes salvation great.
And not only is it great of its conception, its confirmation, its cost, but it's also great in its content. Look at verse 11 with me. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. This is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Church, the content here is we are blood brothers with Jesus Christ himself. The content here is that we have one source.
We are partakers of a divine nature. Church, and we are in the one source of Jesus Christ. We have this one source. And the greatest thing that we can ever receive this year, the greatest thing that we can ever receive next year is Jesus Christ. And how can we drift from that?
How can we drift from that by simply saying, I'm just going to let this year come and I'm going to do whatever happens in my life. And I'm not going to have any direction. I'm not going to have any discipline. We're just going to see what happens.
We can say, I want to have a fixed direction. I want to focus my discipline. And lastly this evening, this morning, we're going to look at how we can develop a firm devotion. How we can develop a firm devotion. You see, direction and discipline without devotion will simply not succeed.
You have that goal to reach that weight loss of 10 pounds.
And you say, you know what, I'm going to begin to eat better. I'm going to begin to live a better life. But you've got that discipline, you begin to go. And then a couple of weeks in, the devotion to those goals begin to fade.
And it begins to be put on the back burner. And ultimately you don't succeed and you end this next year at the same state or even worse. Because your devotion wasn't fully on what you had.
You see, our focus must be on Jesus because that is our devotion. Look with me at Hebrews 6 verse 19. You don't have to turn there if you don't want to. Just a couple pages over and it says this. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.
A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.
In order for us to keep from dripping this morning, church, we need an anchor of hope. We need an anchor that grips the solid rock of truth that's connected to the cable of faith. See, when you go out and you begin to, we were in Arkansas just a couple of years ago.
And Allison's cousin rented a boat and we went out into Lake Ouachita, one of the second cleanest lakes in America. They go back and forth between the first and second. It's clear, it's crystal, it's just a beautiful lake.
We went out and the kid said, you know, can we jump off into the water? The brother's like, Dad, I want to do a backflip off the top of the boat. He got scared. He didn't do it. He barely jumped off. Okay. And so I'm thinking, no, there's boats everywhere.
And her cousin was like, no, that's fine. We'll drop the anchor. Yeah, that's fine. We'll do it. We'll get out in the water, guys. And so he drops the anchor. It's just this little thing. And it began to dig down into the mire and the sand and the boat stopped.
It stayed where it was at because the anchor was holding firm.
Jesus as Our Anchor
We don't have to worry about the boat drifting because the anchor was there. The anchor was holding it in place. And so therefore, church, we have an anchor. And that anchor is Jesus Christ.
And when we're connected to that anchor, the solid rock, the truth that he gives us, we can understand that it is a sure and steadfast anchor. We need an anchor.
We must let the anchor do what only it can do, which is hold our life into place. You see, as I was thinking about this anchor, my mind began to go to some hymns. Right? I like hymns.
I like old hymns. A buddy of mine sings from Mark Trimmel Quartet. They just came out with a CD called Classics. They just do hymns. I'm an old school Southern gospel guy. And in your hymn book, your white hymn book in front of you, if you want to turn there, you can.
You can read along with me. Page 283. Listen to the words of this old classic hymn here. 283 says this. The solid rock. Some of you may know it. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. When darkness seems to hide its face, I rest on his unchanging grace.
Aren't you thankful for that unchanging grace this morning? In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. Look at the chorus. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking. Stand. All other ground is sinking.
Stand. Church, this morning we have a solid rock that we can stand on if we can trust in Jesus. Look back with me as Terry comes and plays. As I'm winding down, 228. This will be the last hymn that I look at this morning.
228. An old, old hymn called The Sweet Haven of Rest. My soul in sad exile. Listen to it. My soul in sad exile was out on life's sea.
So burdened with sin and distress until I heard the sweet voice saying, Make me your choice. And I entered that haven of rest. I yielded myself to his tender embrace. And faith taking a hold of thy word. Thy fetters fell off.
And I'm anchored my soul. The haven of rest is my Lord. Listen to the chorus. I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest. And I'll sail the wide seas no more. The tempest may sweep over the wild seas deep. In Jesus, I'm safe evermore.
Church this morning, that's what the anchor of Jesus brings. It brings us safety. It brings us security when we don't understand what's going to happen. When life throws trials in our life, we don't have to worry about what the sea has to offer because we're offered Jesus as a steadfast anchor.
You see, when the anchor's typically drawn down, we can't see the anchor anymore. The anchor's in a dark water. And it just sort of disappears. And we only know the anchor's there by faith.
The only way we know Jesus is our anchor is by faith. By trusting in him and saying, I can't do this on my own. I've got to trust in what I can't see.
See, this year, we can decide to drift and we can decide to do whatever life brings to us or we can decide to have a direction that's going to glorify God. Hebrews 2.1, I love this translation.
It says this, Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. Church this morning, where are you heading?
Every one of our paths are going to be different. Every one of our goals are going to be different.
Some of you are empty nesters and you're not going to have goals of a family devotion with kids. Maybe grandkids that you see on the weekend.
Some of you are new parents and you're trying to figure out these families. You're trying to figure out how this life works together and the changes that happen.
And we're all in a different boat, but we can all ask ourselves, where are we heading? And what changes need to be made as we're heading in that direction? Are you disciplined in reaching those goals? And if not, you've got to ask yourself, Lord, I need your help.
Humble yourself and say, God, come and help me as I reach these things. And then what's your devotion and who are you giving it all to? See, we can open the door in 2024 because we have an anchor that holds and his name is Jesus.
Closing Prayer and Trust in God
If only we trust in that anchor. Let's stand. Father, we love you. Lord, we thank you for what you've done.
God, I pray that you would have your will and way this morning. Help us as we trust in you. Help us as we set goals this year to reach higher and closer to you than we've ever done. Help us not to just stand still, but to go closer to you.
Lord, I pray that you'll be with this time of invitation. In your name we pray. Amen.
Thank you again for taking your time to listen to the sermon audio of Pleasant Grove. Please subscribe to get our latest sermons each week.
Auto-generated transcript · 5,456 words. May contain errors. Select a timestamp to play from that moment.
Listen to this sermon