Pastor Rev. Steven Wagner Telephone: 573-437-5190

Rt 3, Owensville MO. 65066

Spirit Of Neglect

Open Door Fellowship

Pastor Steven Wagner

July 13, 1996

Scripture: Hebrews 2:1-3

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them] slip.

Hebrews 2:2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;

Hebrews 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard [him];

Theme: We neglect everything today because we are so busy pleasing ourselves.

a. Family

b. Spouses

c. Health

d. Church

e. God

* The biggest of these is we neglect our salvation- V2- 'Lest at any time we should let them slip'.

1. Do you really realize how mighty, how divine, how powerful, the word of God is and that every word, sentence, phrase, question, warning, promise will come true exactly as God has spoken it.

2. V-2 if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, V-3 how shall we escape what was spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The world thinks this is all a joke that none of this Bible is going to come true, even Christians must think that its not really going to come true, by the way they live!!! HELLO

(WE CAN'T BACKSLIDE ONCE WE HAVE BEEN SAVED)

"WRONG"

1. Let what slip? Your Salvation V-3 'How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation'.

2. Escape what? V-2 'every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward'.

3. What is this all saying? That if we don't follow the words spoken to us by the prophets and by Jesus Christ we can slip away and receive the rewards of our life style. Either eternal life or eternal hell lost forever.

A. God does not like backsliders or people that slip away from the righteousness of God in our lives and lifestyles.

1. Hebrews 3:6-14

Hebrews 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Hebrews 3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

Hebrews 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Hebrews 3:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

Hebrews 3:10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in [their] heart; and they have not known my ways.

Hebrews 3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

B. God is interested in those that hold on until the end.

1. Hebrews 2:3- How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard [him];

2. There is a Spirit Of Neglect in the Church today. Yes in the Church. Christians are neglecting there salvation.

a. There becoming entangled in the affairs of this world. Timothy-2 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of [this] life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

b. They are neglecting there salvation in prayer and reading there Bibles so they are following pray to Satan and his temptations-James 1:12 Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

c. Drawn away from what ? This talking about drawing someone away from God, someone that has known God but by there NEGLECT OF SPIRITUAL MATTERS they are drawn away from God and can end up loosing out with God.

3. This Is The Neglect of Spiritual things prophesized about in -Timothy-2 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

Timothy-2 4:4 And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

A. If Satan can get us to neglect Jesus Christ he can rob us of our salvation, but many times because of our neglect we are always trying to keep our nose above water and can never fulfill the commission given to the Church by Jesus Christ. We are so busy trying to make it from one Sunday to the next that we are not spiritually strong enough to win the lost.

1. Because of this Satan can accomplish what he wants.

Closing: Isn't it time we quite neglecting things in our lives usually the most important things just for this world.

a. And the most important thing is God.

b. Our Salvation

c. Our Family

d. Our Church

We need to get our priorities correct in our lives to effect other lives for God or we never will.