I've Got To Walk Away From My Past

I’VE GOT TO WALK AWAY FROM MY PAST

GENESIS 35:1-6

INTRIGUED/ENTRENCHED . . . SAMUEL ALITO

PHILISOPHICAL/POLITICAL DIFFERENCES REGARDING:

QUESTIONABLE

DEPLORABLE PAST

PAST – HE REFUSED TO OVERTURN SIX OF HIS LAST CASES . . .

PAST – ORGANIZATION . . .

PAST – WAS NO SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH/STATE . . .

. . . I’M TRYING TO DO WHAT JACOB WAS CALLED TO DO IN GENESIS 35

WALK AWAY FROM MY PAST

STOP WALKING IN REVERSE

CAN I TELL SOMEONE . . . GOD . . . PAST

HOW GOOD IT FEELS

HOW COMFORTABLE YOU ARE

YOU CAN NEVER PROGRESS WALKING IN REVERSE

TESTIMONY OF AN AIRPLANE . . .

. . . TELL SOMEONE – THE REASON YOU KEEP CRASHING

OPERATING IN REVERSE

LIVING IN YOUR PAST

YOU CAN’T PLAN FOR TOMORROW, BECAUSE YOU KEEP SPENDING TODAY, TALKING ABOUT YESTERDAY (2X).

STOP WALKING

STOP LIVING

STOP TALKING

STOP THINKING

STOP FANTSIZING ABOUT THE PAST!

YOU HAVE TO WALK AWAY . . . PAST.

THAT’S WHAT GOD WAS CALLING JACOB TO DO . . .

V.1 – ARISE (LEAVE THE CITY OF SHECHEM) AND GO UP TO BETHEL (HOUSE OF GOD) AND STAY THERE. GOD WAS TEACHING JACOB, NO –US, A SPIRITUAL LESSON USING THE GEOGRAPHICAL PROXIMITY OF SHECHEM TO BETHEL . . . EXPLAIN.

BETHEL – JACOB WAS SUPPOSE TO BE

GENESIS 33:18 – SHECHEM

SHECHEM: IS CLOSE TO BETHEL, BUT IT IS NOT BETHEL . . .

ARCHAELOGIST – 30 MILES FROM BETHEL. CLOSE, BUT NOT BETHEL.

AND BECAUSE JACOB IS NOT WHERE HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE, HE ENDS UP EXPERIENCING MUCH DIFFICULTY AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. HE CAUSES MUCH DIFFICULTY AND DISAPPOINTMENTS TO OCCUR IN THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND HIM.

DAUGHTER – BRUTALLY RAPED

SONS – MURDER

CITY – KILL HIM

ALL BECAUSE HE WASN’T WHERE GOD INTENDED HIM TO BE.

NEAR, BUT NOT THERE!

HOW MANY TIMES

HOW MUCH PAIN

HOW MUCH HEARTACHE HAVE YOU HAD TO ENDURE ALL BECAUSE YOU WEREN’T WHERE GOD WANTED YOU TO BE?

JACOB WAS NOT THAT FAR FROM GOD, BUT HE WAS NOT NEAR GOD. IT WAS ONLY AFTER JACOB SENSED DANGER IN SHECHEM, THAT HE DECIDED TO LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF GOD AND GO UP TO BETHEL.

1. YOU WALK AWAY FROM YOUR PAST BY BECOMING A HEARER AND DOER OF GOD’S WORD (2X).

JONAH (NINEVEH, TARSHISH) . . .

LOT’S WIFE . . .

CHILDREN OF ISRAEL . . .

2. YOU WALK AWAY FROM YOUR PAST BY REMOVING ANYTHING FROM YOUR LIFE THAT HOLDS YOU BACK SPIRITUALLY (2X).

VERSE 2 – WHEN JACOB DECIDED HE WAS GOING TO LISTEN TO GOD, HE TOLD HIS WHOLE HOUSEHOLD AND ALL THOSE THAT WERE WITH HIM:

FOREIGN GODS/IDOLS – ANYTHING/ANYONE WE TRUST, DESIRE, OR PRIORITIZE OVER GOD.

PURIFY THEMSELVES – AN OUTWARD WASHING, WHICH REPRESENTS THE INWARD CLEANSING A CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCES WHEN THEY CONFESS, REPENT, AND RENOUNCE SIN IN THEIR LIFE…

CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES – SYMBOLIC OF LEAVING THE OLD SIN STAINED CLOTHES BEHIND AND PUTTING ON GARMENTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. (II COR. 5:17).

3. YOU WALK AWAY FROM YOUR PAST BY BURYING ANYTHING THAT HINDERS YOUR GROWTH IN THE LORD.

VERSE FOUR – “SO THEY GAVE JACOB ALL THE FOREIGN GODS THEY HAD AND THE RINGS IN THEIR EARS, AND JACOB BURIED THEM UNDER THE OAK AT SHECHEM.”

WE MAY CAST ASIDE THOSE THINGS THAT ARE HINDERING US FROM GROWING IN THE LORD, BUT WE PUT THEM IN A PLACE WHERE WE CAN GET BACK TO THEM IF WE NEED TO, NO – IF WE WANT TO.

STORY – BOY WITH HORSE . . .

VERSE SIX – SUMS IT ALL UP: JACOB AND ALL THAT WERE WITH HIM WENT UP TO BETHEL.

GO UP – LET GO

LET IT GO . . .