Series Archive

Are We Drifting?

Hebrews 6:1–8 | Spring 2026 | April 19 – May 17

About This Series

What This Series Asked

In the spring of 2026, Bishop Robert Warren Lyons, Jr. brought a question before the congregation of The MarketPlace Movement that most believers would rather not answer honestly. The question was not directed at the unconverted. It was directed at those who already knew the Lord. It came out of one of the most studied and contested passages in the New Testament, Hebrews 6:4–6, not as a doctrinal debate but as a personal diagnostic: when you examine the trajectory of your life, is it trending toward holiness or toward departure?

Drift is not always preceded by trauma. Sometimes drift comes wrapped in blessing. David acted up once he became king, not while he was still waiting for the promise. The church attendance can increase while the heart recedes. The titles can multiply while the voice of the Lord grows faint. The writer of Hebrews does not describe the departure from faith as a sudden catastrophic break. He describes it as neglect. The word from Hebrews 2:3 sets the diagnostic posture for the entire series: how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

The series ran six sessions across five weeks. It opened with the diagnostic, moved through the anatomy of how drift actually works inside a person, and closed with two narrative sermons carrying the same question through different faces. Naomi left Bethlehem under the logic of necessity and came back calling herself Mara. The Samaritan woman had been drifting without ever fully arriving at the truth. Jesus went out of His way to be at the well where she was. Both were under the same rain. Both met the same God.

This series is grounded in a governing premise that runs from the first session to the last: the God who cannot be blamed for our drift is the same God who passes through the places where drifting people live. The warning of Hebrews 6 is not cruelty. It is the most serious form of pastoral love, the kind that tells you the truth about where the road leads, and then points to the road back.

The Question

Am I Drifting?

In aviation, a single degree of heading error causes approximately one mile of lateral drift for every sixty miles traveled. A flight from New York to Los Angeles carrying that one-degree error lands forty miles from its destination. Not because of a crash. Not because of a catastrophic failure. Because of a small, sustained deviation that compounded invisibly while the aircraft was airborne, the instruments looked normal, the ground was passing below, and no one could feel the drift happening.

Spiritual drift works the same way. There is no announcement. There is no visible collapse. The drift is an inner-man issue before the body starts showing signs. It takes root below the surface, in the quiet space between what we say we believe and what we are actually building our lives on. By the time it becomes visible, the deviation has been underway for a long time.

Drift is Real Drift is Sneaky Drift is Dangerous

Series Threads

Three Things This Series Established

The Diagnosis: What Drift Actually Looks Like

The writer of Hebrews does not begin with a warning about scandalous sin. He begins with the word "neglect." Drift is not characterized by one dramatic departure. It is the product of small, sustained deviation: stepping away from spiritual disciplines a little, then a little more. Stepping away from spiritual community a little, then a little more. Stepping away from sound doctrine a little, then a little more. Before long, the heart is far from Him even though the body is still in the building.

"It is possible for our church attendance to increase, but our adherence to the things of God decreases. Drifting always has a crowd that will welcome you. And the ending state of drift is permanent, not temporary. So it must not be taken lightly."

The Anatomy: The Draw Is Internal

James 1:13–15 maps the mechanism of drift in biological terms: seed, womb, conception, birth, death. The draw is not primarily external. It does not come from the enemy waving a carrot. It originates in uncrucified flesh, flesh that was wounded but not killed, reduced but not dead. The person who addressed the visible sins and left the root untouched has a factory running at reduced capacity. Reduced is not closed. The seeds it generates may be more subtle, more dressed in the language of ministry, but they are still seeking a womb in the heart.

"The partially wounded person is the harder pastoral target. They feel better than they used to. And feeling better than you used to can become the enemy of being where God is calling you to be."

The Return: You Just Have to Turn

The series closed with two stories. Naomi left Bethlehem under the logic of necessity and came back changed. The Samaritan woman had been drifting without ever fully arriving at the truth. The closing question was not only whether the drifter would return, but whether the God who cannot be blamed for our drift would go to where drift deposits the people who never had the truth to begin with. John 4 answered that question before it finished being asked. He had to pass through Samaria.

"You do not have to have it together to return. You just have to turn. The God who visited His people in Bethlehem is the God who passes through the places where drifting people live."

Upcoming Publication · Q4 2026

Are We Drifting?

Spiritual Drift, Apostasy, and the Grace That Calls You Back

The theological architecture behind this series is now being shaped into a book. It goes deeper than the messages could reach on a Sunday morning: the full drift continuum from neglect to reprobacy, the pneumatological mechanism, the Trinitarian grounding of the unpardonable sin, and the governing boundary that keeps the framework from becoming a tool of human judgment. The series asked the question. The book builds the case.

Read the Overview

Sessions

The Full Series

The opening diagnostic. The 1-in-60 aviation illustration applied to spiritual life. The three anchor propositions: drift is real, drift is sneaky, drift is dangerous. A call to honest self-examination before the question of falling away becomes theoretical and the word of the Lord does what it was written to do. A critical distinction also introduced in this session: there is a difference between falling and falling away. A just person can fall seven times. Apostasy is a different category entirely, and the warnings in Scripture exist because the danger is real.
The agricultural metaphor from Hebrews 6:7–8 taken at full weight. Rain falls on both kinds of soil. The land that produces thorns is not under drought. God has not withheld His provision. The soil changed through drift. The thorns are not evidence of God's absence. They are evidence that the drift changed the composition of the ground. Drift is our action, not God's. And in Hebrews 6:8, two words bring the whole passage to a pastoral point: close to. Close to a curse, but not yet burned. There is still time. Make your decision.
The Wednesday Corporate Prayer continuation of the Sunday message. James 1:13–15 provides the biological map of how drift works mechanically: the draw, the enticement, the conception at the moment of consent, the birth, and finally death. The seed is the uncrucified flesh. The womb is the heart. The sanctuary violation: when iniquity conceives in the believer's heart, it is not merely a moral failure but a defilement of the temple purchased by the blood of Christ. The partially wounded flesh. The immutability of God as the reason the responsibility for drift is always ours: He does not move. The return road is always at the same address.
The series moves from exposition to narrative. Naomi's story carries every thread of the previous sessions into a single human life. A woman who knew the covenant, left under the logic of necessity, suffered the fruit of the departure, and heard three words that changed the direction of her feet: God had visited His people. She did not have it together when she turned back. She arrived calling herself Mara, empty, without the things she had left with. But she turned. The kinsman-redeemer was already in the field before she arrived. She did not have to have it together to return. She had to turn.
A Wednesday continuation drawing further on the Naomi narrative and the practical anatomy of what the return journey looks like. What does it mean to actually turn back? What does the return road require? The series threads from the earlier sessions held together through the narrative frame: the land changed, not the rain. The road back leads to the same God at the same address. He does not come down to where the drift carried you. He says: Return to Me and I will return to you.
The closing session opens the second category the series had to account for. Not everyone in the room drifted from truth they once held. Some have been drifting without the full presentation of truth. The Samaritan woman at the well was not a returning covenant member. She was a person at the margin where the drift of a people and the drift of a life had deposited her. She was coming to the well at noon, alone. Jesus did not wait for her to navigate her way back to a truth she had never fully received. He went out of His way to be at the well where she was. John 4:4 states it plainly: He had to pass through Samaria. The God who cannot be blamed for our drift passes through the places where drifting people live.

Key Texts

Scripture Covered in This Series

Hebrews 2:3 The diagnostic framing of the entire series. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Drift begins with neglect, not rebellion.
Hebrews 6:1–3 The call to press toward maturity. The baseline the series was defending. Pressing forward is not optional for the believer.
Hebrews 6:4–6 The core warning text. The portrait of the one who has tasted, been made partaker, and fallen away. The theological hinge of the series.
Hebrews 6:7–8 The agricultural metaphor. Rain falls on both kinds of soil. The land changed, not the rain. God has not withheld His provision. The soil changed through drift.
James 1:13–15 The anatomy of temptation. The draw is internal, not external. God cannot be tempted and He does not tempt anyone. The seed is the uncrucified flesh, already resident, seeking the conditions to conceive.
Galatians 5:16–24 The flesh and the Spirit. The flesh produces seeds called lust and passion. Crucifixion shuts down the factory. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 The body as temple of the Holy Spirit. When iniquity finds a womb in the believer's heart, it is not merely a moral failure. It is a sanctuary violation.
Colossians 3:5 Put to death the members of your earthly body. Not wound. Not reduce. Not manage. Put to death. The aorist imperative: decisive, complete, not partial.
Romans 6:6–14 Dead to sin, alive to God. The reckoning of what happened at conversion is what grounds the response to the draw. The condemned seed does not have a rightful claim on the regenerate heart.
Malachi 3:6–7 The immutability of God means the responsibility is always ours. He does not change. He does not come to where drift carried us. Return to Me and I will return to you.
Ruth 1–4 The narrative of Naomi. A person who knew the covenant, departed under pressure, suffered the fruit of the departure, heard the word that God had visited His people, and turned back toward Bethlehem.
John 4:1–42 The Samaritan woman. Not a returning covenant member but a person at the margin where drift deposited her. The God who cannot be blamed for our drift came to where she was. He had to pass through Samaria.

Watch the Series

The Full Series Is Available to Watch

All six sessions from this series are available on the MPM YouTube channel. If you were not in the room, the videos carry the full weight of what was taught. Watch from the beginning, or start with the session that speaks to where you are.

Watch the Series