Don’t Look Back
Introduction
I. Don’t look...
1. In the early seventies a new fad broke across the nation. It really took off in sports
arenas across the nation as the whole nation watched the unfolding of a new grass
roots fanatic: The Streaker!
2. It was out of that movement that the prolific songwriter and satirist penned the
immortal words that capsulized the sensation...
A. “Don’t look Ethel... but I was too late!”
3. I want to address the direction of your gaze tonight...
A. Don’t look back!
II. The thinking of our culture has moved from...
1. Hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil, to...
2. Let me see how much evil I can get into
A. Hear no evil?
i. We live in a gossip mongering culture that cannot seem to get enough bad
news about the people we have put up on a pedestal
ii. We thrive on evil reports
iii. The news media is an evil report empire
iv. Hear not evil? We live for it...
B. See no evil?
i. The same culture that brings us sound also brings us visuals
ii. Then we wonder why people act the way that they do...
C. We can see the adage: “Garbage in, garbage out”
i. We are programmed by what we hear and watch
3. I saw a report on the cults several years ago
A. In some of the cult monasteries they tried to fill as many sensations as
possible.
i. Hearing
ii. Smelling
iii. Touching
iv. Tasting
v. Seeing
B. It was thought that in this process a person would become immersed and
would be changed
4. The truth is, change must take place from the inside out
A. But the concept of filling the senses for training is not new
i. Tabernacle worship was filled with sensations, especially David’s
tabernacle
B. God fills the senses
i. Oh taste and see
ii. See
iii. Hear
iv. The smell of tabernacle worship (God said it was a sweet smelling odor)
1. Maybe we’ll address that more on Friday as we begin Passover
C. He further instructed their sight to be filled
i. Write it on the door posts of your house
ii. Make frontlets before your eyes
III. But there is an area of looking that we are to a void more than others
1. Most people know not to look at certain things
A. But there are things we don’t let go of that can have a greater impact
upon us and upon the kingdom
IV. It is this backwards look that we want to examine
1. What is it and why is it so critical to us.
A. Looking back is the expression of a heart that is having a hard time
letting go
B. That letting go can be from
i. Desire
ii. Pain
iii. Shame
Examples of looking back
I. Lot’s wife
1. We know the story in Gen.
2. Jesus told his followers to “remember Lot’s wife” when he was talking about the
need to move with what God is doing...
A. Let’s read there Luke 17:28-32
i. We have already learned to apply the lessons of “As it was in the days of
Noah” to the Kingdom
ii. This scripture bears the same context.
iii. God was moving on Lot and his family
iv. There had been an intercessory prayer lifted from Abraham
B. We tend to get caught up in the issues of Sodom and not on the issues of
moving with a Word of the Lord.
3. It is an important enough lesson that Peter raises it again in his epistle.
II. Israel looked back to Egypt
1. Number 11:1-6
A. “We don’t have as good as we did when we were in bondage!”
III. We can look back too
1. We miss our histories
2. Is. 43:18-19 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will
even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
A. He is talking about shifting into the new
i. The new sometimes feels like a wilderness and a desert.
Dangers in looking back
I. A backwards longing heart (text)
1. Your fitness to rule in the Kingdom is being determined
2. The kingdom is ultimately about the heart
A. The eyes looking back indicates the heart
B. You can’t plow straight
3. Three factors in backwards looking when you are at the plow:
A. Sacrifice
B. Family requirements
C. Old relationships
4. There are other things mentioned in the parable of the supper invitation (Luke 14)
A. I bought a piece of ground: Land
B. I bought five yoke of oxen: Possessions
C. I have married a wife: Other covenants take priority
5. “Holy Spirit come and judge our priorities so we can be fit for you kingdom”
II. An unyielding heart (John 7:37-8:1)
1. An unyielding heart keeps you looking back at your own paradigms
A. When we bring our models and paradigms into a shift it will cause division
i. v4 “There was division among the people because of Him”
B. Shifts (change) always present new paradigms (models) of perception and
what people think
i. These things always begin in the spirit realm first
ii. v38 “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit”
2. An unyielding heart keeps you looking back at your own perceptions
A. Many different perceptions began to emerge
i. “this is a prophet”
ii. “This is the Christ”
iii. “Christ does not come out of Galilee”
1. This was true, but it was their perception that trapped them
B. It is not just the revelation of the new that Christ wants to bring to us
i. We have to have a new perception to receive it
ii. They had the right “word”, but they missed what God set in front of them
1. We can have the right word
a. “kingdom”
b. “apostolic”
c. Even “vision”
2. But we can miss the present move of the spirit because we cannot perceive
what is before us
C. Looking back always causes you to lose perspective of where you are
3. An unyielding heart keeps you looking back at your own protection
A. The new thing that God wants to do cannot be obtained without exposure
i. Nicodemus had tried to approach this new thing in the cover of night
ii. He tries to speak up within the paradigm that he was in
B. His model was that he was one of the “rulers”
i. Perhaps he thought like we think “I can affect change from within my
position”
ii. There is a truth to that
1. Our motives must be judged
2. Are we just not wanting to be exposed and risk losing our position
iii. The new thing was not trying to remove him from his position
1. But we cannot hide in our old models and move with the current revelatory
move of God that He puts before us
4. An unyielding heart keeps you from pursuing
A. Everyone went to his own house
i. This is not what we believe
ii. This is not what we perceive
iii. We can’t agree
iv. I’m tired, let’s just go home
B. No one could pursue
i. BUT Jesus went to the Mount of Olives
ii. v2 says that the next day He sat down to teach
iii. What did they miss because they could not move with Him?
iv. What will you miss if you do not grasp the new thing that God is doing?
5. “Holy Spirit come and break our models, change our perception, and expose our
true hearts”
III. An UN-responsible heart (not IR-responsible; but not willing to take
responsibility)
1. John 21:20-21
A. Take responsibility for your past
i. Jesus was confronting Peter about his failure
B. Take responsibility for your present
i. Three times Jesus gives Peter an assignment
ii. Your past will deactivate you in your present and rob you of your future
C. Take responsibility for your future
i. “when you are old...”
2. As long as you cast off onto someone else you will never take responsibility
Conclusion
I. The temptation to look back or look away is always greatest right before our
assignment is about to be given (text)
1. This was not the twelve
2. This man approaches and Jesus has a warning
3. After this he appoints seventy for a short kingdom assignment
II. Don’t look back
1. Assignments are about to be given
III. Don’t look at others (Like Peter)
1. The Lord is trying to give you your assignments
IV. Set your hands to the plow...
