THERE’S NOTHING BACK THERE
Just want to look at several passages of scripture with you about dealing with what is behind us. Gonna go through them kind of fast, you may want to just write them down, instead of trying to turn to them. Obviously up to you.
1) PSALM 103:12 NKJV
“as far as the east is from the west he removes our transgressions from us”
Do you think David had some transgressions that God needed to remove? Of all the INCREDIBLE things David did, he had some UGLY mixed in there too didn’t he. We are all David in one way or another. We can be giant slayers or we can be adulterers and husband murderers
Remarks:
1) Have you ever wondered why Gods’ word says “East from West” as instead of “North from South”? When you are traveling North to South, eventually you behind traveling North again. Also, when you are headed south, it is a downward direction. When you are traveling East to West you are always headed in that direction and East remains the same distance from the West.
2) Years ago a friend sent me a meme. It was a picture of the grim reaper, and the capture said “When your past comes knocking, don’t answer, it has nothing new to say.”- In other words “there’s nothing back there”!
3) This passage is also about forgiveness. We must forgive others. There’s healing power in forgiveness.
2) MATTHEW 8:21-22 NKJV
“Then another of His disciples said to Him “Lord, let me first go and bury my father” but Jesus said to him “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Remarks:
There are at least a couple of things we can take away from this:
1) Years ago, I attended a conference and one of the speakers started began his message by saying “I’m not sure if I’m here to harvest fruit, or prune deadwood, I guess I’ll probably do a bit of both.”
2) Deuteronomy 6:15 ESV
Tells us “For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God”. So when the disciple tells Jesus “let me first go…” He is immediately placing Jesus second.
3) Jesus said “let the dead, bury their own dead”. He’s telling the disciple “there’s nothing back there, follow me”.
4) PHILIPPIANS 3:13 NKJV
If you are running a foot race with everything you have in you, what generally happens when you look back? That’s right you’re probably gonna stumble and fall.
Paul writes “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me and reaching forward to those things which are ahead”
Remarks:
1) Years ago, a movie came out titled “The Gumball Rally”. Early on in the movie, Franco (played by Raul Julia) was sitting in his sports car and said “The first rule of Italian driving; whatsa behind me is notta important” and he rips off the rearview mirror.
In verse 13 Paul is saying “whatsa behind me is notta important”. But look at verse 13 along with 12 & 14. 3:12 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me”> Then read 13: Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me and reaching forward to those things which are ahead”. 3:14 “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
5) (GENESIS 19:17 and 19:26 NKJV)
This may be the first example of God saying “there’s nothing back there”.
19:17 “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”
Then in 19:26 “but his wife (Lot’s wife) looked back behind him and she became a pillar of salt.” God is serious when He says “there’s nothing back there.
Most times when we are told “there’s nothing back there” there are uncomfortable results. Other times it might just be deadly.
In Luke 17:32 Jesus said “Remember Lot’s wife.” Jesus got right to the point didn’t he!
6) (MARK 8:26 NKJV)
Like Lot’s wife, do you have friends who have “gone back there”?
Then He sent him away to his house saying “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town”
1. Story of when Jesus gives sight to the blind man. Leading up to this passage Jesus asks the disciples “Who do men say I am?” As is he were saying “you know, like the general population, those in spiritual blindness.” Then Jesus asks “Who do you say I am?” Perhaps He did this to see if they yet realized they had spiritual sight.
2. Now back to that blind fella. Do you have friends who have “gone back there” even though they probably knew in their heart that “there’s nothing back there” except heartache, strife and sin?
3. Jesus didn’t want this man, who had recently gained his physical sight, to return to the spiritually blind town of Bethsaida, thereby protecting him from a death by association.
7) JOHN 21:3 NKJV
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing” They said to him, “we are going with you also…”.
1) I believe that Peter was feeling out of sorts. He had denied Christ and Christ has resurrected, and it may have just been too much for Peter to handle. Feeling unsure of where he belonged or even fit in, he decided to go back to what he knew. But Jesus had MUCH bigger plans for Peter.
2) By now, I’m sure Peter was thinking “man this is messed up”, and then the next morning Jesus appears to them on the shore, after they had spent a night of fishing and caught nothing. Jesus said put your net out on the other side of the boat”. When they did, they caught more fish than their nets could handle. It was as if Jesus was saying to Peter, going forward you can do nothing without me. Not even fishing. There’s nothing back there Peter!
3) When life gets us out of sorts, oftentimes our first tendency is to go back to where we knew we fit in.
4) This is our most critical time to know that Jesus has bigger plans for us, and there’s nothing back there.
8) (JOHN 6:66)
Earlier in the book of John, Jesus is explaining who He is, and people are doubting and complaining about who He says he is. In John 6:66 is reads “Even some of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” Earlier I asked have you had friends that “have gone back there”? Jesus did too. Do you know what that tells me…that it is a personal decision. Don’t you know that Jesus could have prevented them from turning back if he chose to? He knew it had to be their choice!
8) (Revelations 12:11)
Now that I’ve said all this, I might be throwing you a curve ball now. Don’t answer this out loud just yet. Try this on
“can you go back there, without going back there?”
You’re probably saying “what does that mean”? Maybe some of you know exactly what I mean…
Raise your hand if you’ve done a cardboard testimony. Tell my experience.
Did you go back there without going back there?
“and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”. Revelations 12:11
9) (Matthew 6:33)
Matthew chapters 5 and 6 are such powerful, powerful verses.
In chapter 6 Jesus talks about Gods creations, and one of the most moving parts of that is when he says “consider the lilies”, which leads up to one of my favorite verses in the bible “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” Matthew 6:33
In chapters 5 and 6 Jesus leads up to verse 33 in chapter 6. He is explaining what “all these things” are, then He says “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you”. I don’t know about you but I want some of that!
This passage is simple, much like many other verses in scripture. But like I’ve told my children many times “just because it is simple, does make it easy”!
10) EPHESIANS 4:13 (NKJV) (make this my closing) last closing
“till we all come the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
I don’t know about you, but I wanna see what that looks like!
