DON’T LOOK BACK
Luke 9:57-62
Luke 9:57-10:1
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, \”I will follow you wherever you go.\”
58 Jesus replied, \”Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.\”
59 He said to another man, \”Follow me.\”
But the man replied, \”Lord, first let me go and bury my father.\”
60 Jesus said to him, \”Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.\”
61 Still another said, \”I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.\”
62 Jesus replied, \”No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.\”
V:57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, \”I will follow you wherever you go.\”
58 Jesus replied, \”Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.\”
There is no permanent place on earth for the Christian
This is not our home. We are passing through.
Don’t attached to earthly possessions.
V:59. He said to another man, \”Follow me.\”
But the man replied, \”Lord, first let me go and bury my father.\”
60 Jesus said to him, \”Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.\”
- Following Jesus leads you out of the land of the dead to the place of the living.
There are some dead things we need to leave behind.
You have shake the dust from those who refuse to accept the Lord as Savior.
Matthew 10:14-16
If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you
leave that home or town. 15 I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and
Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
V:61. Still another said, \”I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.\”
62 Jesus replied, \”No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.\”
- Following Jesus means putting Him first.
- When God is first, the family has a good second
- When God is first, family life is enhanced.
- When God is first, family takes on a new level of importance.
Matthew 19:29-30
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
DON’T LOOK BACK WHEN FOLLOWING JESUS
Following Jesus puts the perspective on the future.
- Looking back takes the past into the presence
- Looking back colors the future with past problems
- Looking back changes the course of the future
- You can’t drive a car forward looking back
- Looking back brings past failures into the future
- Looking back keeps an attachment on past problems
- Looking back puts the focus on guilt of sins God has forgiven.
1 John 1:9-10
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
- Don’t carry guilt of yesterday into today.
- God gives us a clean slate each day.
Micah 7:18
You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
- God does not hold your mistakes of yesterday against you.
- Following Jesus means putting complete trust in Him.
- Following Jesus is allowing Him to handle the problems of the day.
- Following Jesus is putting all your burdens on Him.
DON’T LOOK BACK AT THE DEFEATS OF YESTERDAY
- Failure is part of growing.
- We learn what doesn’t work so we can try something different.
- If you don’t try something, you will never learn anything.
- Its not how many times you fail, but how many times you keep trying.
- Psalms 37:23-24
If the Lord delights in a man\’s way,
he makes his steps firm;
though he stumble, he will not fall,
for the Lord upholds him with his hand.
- Don’t define a defeat as a failure, but a step toward success.
- Many successes are built on past failures.
DON’T SEE THE PAST AS BETTER THAN WHAT IT WAS
- We always talk about the “good old days”
- The good old days had their share of problems.
- The good old days are stuck in yesterday’s ideas and technology.
- Ecclesiastes 7:10
Do not say, \”Why were the old days better than these?\”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.
- Throughout the book of Exodus are stories of the Israelites looking
Back at what they had in Egypt as slaves.
- They couldn’t see the promised land for their complaints in the deserts.
- They couldn’t enjoy their freedom for looking back at place that was not
Their home.
Numbers 11:18-20
\”Tell the people: \’Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, \”If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!\” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month — until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it — because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, \”Why did we ever leave Egypt?\”
REFLECTING ON OLD SITUATION CAN MAKE YOU SAD OR ANGRY
- Anytime you rehearse old hurts and pains you bring them to
The surface to stir up hurt over again.
- You know you have not got over a situation when you hurt
As if it was present.
- 1 Peter 2:1-3
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of
every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may
grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
- Concentrate on improving yourself for God’s planned goodness.
- Don’t let the past hold you captive.
- Don’t give someone who hurt you power over your emotions.
- Start this new year with an outlook of peace, joy and success.
DON’T LOOK BACK AT VICTORIES AND THINK YOU ARE BETTER THAN WHAT YOU ARE
- What successes we had in the past belong to the Lord.
- What successes we had in the past were purposed so others be
Lifted up.
Philippians 3:12-14
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
- Brothers and Sisters Don’t bring the mess of 2021 into 2022
- God has new and better things instore for us.
- Don’t limit what God can do based on what was in the past.
- God has a time for our joy
- The best is yet to come
- Put your hope in the Lord
1.He can do exceedingly abundantly more than you can as or conceive.
2. Put your hope in the Lord and trust His plan.
3. 2021 was a time of growth
4. 2022 is the time of success
SUMMARY DON’T LOOK BACK
LOOKING BACK TAKES YOU EYE OFF THE KINGDOM
LOOKING BACK TAKES YOU FOCUS OFF KINGDOM SUCCESSES
LOOKING BACK TAKES YOUR MIND OFF KINGDOM
PURPOSES
LOOKING BACK TAKES YOUR FOCUS OFF JESUS JOY
LOOKING BACK TAKES YOUR FOCUS OFF THE PEACE OF JESUS
LOOKING BACK TAKE YOUR FOCUS OFF YOUR TRUE POTENTIAL
LOOKING BACK TAKES YOUR MIND OFF THE GLORY
OF GOD
Rev. M. Mitchell
