3 22 09 Moving Forward Series – Never Look Back
Moving Forward – Preaching Series –
“Not Looking Back”
3 22 09 HT AM
Genesis 19:17-26 NKJV
Life is a series of forward progressions. This is true naturally, practically, socially, economically, relationally, emotionally and spiritually. While some of these points we move forward in easily others can bring challenge. Moving forward does not mean to forsake your past – I believe in Heritage. Moving forward simply means you accept your present as your moment. You’re prepared to seize the reality of your moment, rather than focus on yesterday.
Today I want to share with you for a few moments about NOT LOOKING BACK. Never look back unless you’re planning to go there.
Genesis 19:17 NKJV
So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
Genesis 19:18 Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords!
Genesis 19:19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.
Genesis 19:20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”
Genesis 19:21 And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.
Genesis 19:22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Genesis 19:23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens.
Genesis 19:25
So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
Genesis 19:26
But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
This story shows the power of the Grace of God – Grace so strong to save from destruction. At the same time in contrast the strength of the sin nature as we see on the very heals of deliverance one looks back to what was rather than what could be. I wonder today how many live their life longing for what was at the price of losing what could be?
Since the Bible does not clarify why she looked back, the reader may take some speculation here; she may have looked back for natural reasons; house, memories, connections, friendships, not all bad, but harmful enough to pull her back into the hands of destruction. She may have looked back for sinful reasons – whatever the reason, she cashed in her future for the price of looking back.
Later in the NT, Jesus Himself drew our attention back to this story, doing so as an admonition to us. He referred to Sodom to warn the wicked; and spoke of Lots wife, to warn the righteous.
Luke 17:32 NKJV
Remember Lot’s wife.
Luke 17:33
Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
Statements about looking back –
Looking back comes from doubt;
· Doubt is a natural part of the fallen nature. It was through the casting of doubt that sin entered the world.
Genesis 19:23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens.
Genesis 19:25
So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
Genesis 19:26
But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
· Notice how Lot’s looked back after they arrived at the safe place, after they had left.
· Disobedience and doubt work together.
Looking forward brings hope;
Romans 11:22 NKJV
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
Looking forward guards your heart –your eyes are windows to the soul – look long enough, you will go there!
Proverbs 4:23 NLT
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
To avoid looking back to keep pressing forward
Philippians 3:13 KJV
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Philippians 3:14
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
· Your tomorrow is determined by how you compare today with yesterday.
Never look back on your– (3 areas)
1. Commitments to God
Luke 9:61 NKJV
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
Luke 9:62
But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
2. Covenant Relationships
Genesis 2:23 NKJV
And Adam said:“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Covenant relationships are based on separation from the past to secure your future.
1 Corinthians 13:4 MSG
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
1 Corinthians 13:5
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
1 Corinthians 13:6
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
1 Corinthians 13:7
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
To many relationships never meet their true future because one or both choose to live in the past.
3. Crimes of our past ;
They are not actual crimes (legally), yet we treat ourselves as if they were. We carry them daily and live in prisons made of guilt and shame.
Colossians 1:21 NKJV
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
Colossians 1:22
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
Colossians 1:23
if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
1 John 1:9 NKJV
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.