It is said that Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China years ago, used to hang in his home a plaque with two Hebrew Words on it: EBENEZER & JEHOVAH JIREH. The first word, EBENEZER, means ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us’ and the second JEHOVAH JIREH, ‘The Lord will see to it or provide.’ One looked back while the other looked forward. One reminded him of God’s faithfulness and the other of God’s assurances.
As I talked with the children this morning, we spoke of the plans that God has for us. We started off 2023 wondering what God’s plan would be for us. The same thought enters our minds as we look forward to 2024.
I would like to end this year by looking back just a little at what God has done for us this year. What blessings has God poured out on us? You may have been a part of it all, you might have been a part of some of it, or you might not have been here for any of it. None the less, I think it would do us all good to remember the blessings that God has sent our way. PRAYER
Just a few statistics to begin with. Sermons preached - 144. Baptisms - 3 - Pakistan baptisms - 5. New Church Members - 14. Funerals - 8
- For many of you, for many of us I should say, we have spent a lot of time in doctors’ offices. But I am thankful that most of you are here today and at least doing fairly well. God has heard our prayers all year asking for healing and He has done just that.
- Our clothes closet has partnered with at least 2 school districts and that ministry reaches 100s in our community with clothes and food. They have contributed over $7000 of clothes to those who were not able to provide for themselves.
- God blessed us with a huge turnout for a blood drive that was held here at the church in February.
- Our brotherhood group elected new leadership as did our deacon body.
- We were finally able to participate in the river cruise in March on our Vanishing River tour.
- We had an emotional Tenebrae service on Good Friday in April. Easter Sunday was another great day of worship in our Sonrise service as well as our regular service. Easter cantata.
- We celebrated our Mothers on Mothers Day and our fathers on Fathers Day.
- We recognized our high school and college graduates again this year.
- Our youth worked hard on their mission trip to
- We had an energetic and exciting time during our VBS week.
- Hot dog social in July. Kids fun day. Back to school bash. Church picnic.
- Fall Festival. Thanksgiving baskets. Angel tree. Back packs. Christmas cantata. Christmas program in Pakistan.
So, it has been a busy year as God has used us in mighty ways to minister in our community, in our state, and on the other side of the world. It can be good to reflect on what God has done to help us spread His message. But we will stop there for now. Sometimes looking back isn’t such a good thing. Let me explain. Let’s focus for just a minute on how Jesus has changed us. Because in order for us to continue to grow as God’s family, we must focus on the right things.
Think about your life—the person you used to be. Many times, our past holds us back from a great relationship with Christ. What I want to do today is to get us to focus on what God has in store for us.
In Luke 17:28-33, Jesus is telling us about the coming of the kingdom of God. He is telling about the coming of the rapture and how we must look forward and not behind us. Look to what is to come rather than where we came from.
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Do you remember your life before you became a Christian? For some it may have not been that bad. We may have been what is considered to be a good person. We thought of others, we weren’t violent or abusive, just an overall good person. But then we accepted Christ as our Savior and it was then that we realized that being a good person will not get you into heaven. In fact, there’s only one thing that we can DO to get into heaven and that is to accept Jesus as our Savior.
For others, as you look back on your old way of life, you realize now how awful you were, how lost you were, how your life was really going nowhere. But then Jesus changed all that. So, Jesus is telling us not to linger on the past, the way we USED to be. Instead, focus on what is to come. Looking back and lingering on our old ways can cause us to yearn for parts of that old life and that’s dangerous.
You might remember the story of Lot’s wife. To summarize the story, there was so much sin in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that God warned Lot to get himself and his family out of there because God was going to destroy the city. God told them that as they left, not to look back or they would be destroyed also. Lot’s wife, as they were on the outskirts of the city, turned and looked anyway, and do you remember what happened to her? She was turned into a pillar of salt. She looked back on her old life when God wanted her to focus, not on her old life, but on what He had in store for her. That’s what Jesus refers to here:
Luke 17:28-33 – “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
********31 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
Jesus makes a very simple statement that relates to a very big problem: our ability to walk away from our old life. This statement to remember Lot’s wife is sandwiched between Jesus’ discussion on how God’s judgment came upon man while he went through his everyday life thinking of the great things he would do tomorrow, but their tomorrow brought only their destruction.
As we know from Scripture, Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt after she looked back at the city, where she lived, which was being destroyed by the Lord. Was her punishment because she disobeyed the command given by the angles to not look back as they fled? Or was it because of the reason she looked back?
I would say that she was punished for both. God did not want them to look back because He wants us to trust in His direction and future for our lives. When we look back, we are saying in our hearts that I miss where I came from and am unsure of where God is leading me.
So, we can read in
Genesis 19:26 – “But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
In this verse we need to understand that the original Hebrew language has the words “looked back” to indicate that she took a longing look upon the city, a look that indicated she wanted what she left and not what God was saving her from or looking to what new life He was going to give them.
So, in looking back to our scripture in Luke we see that Jesus is telling the disciples, as well as us, that we should not be looking back at the things of the world and our old life when He has a better life awaiting us. So don’t look back with longing for the life you lived before receiving Christ.
Luke 17:33 - “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”
Again, Jesus is letting us know that we need to give up our old ways and look to His ways for our lives. Cast out the old person and let the born-again person live to please our Father in heaven.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
When we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we signed a contract with Him to follow His lead and not to long for the things of this world, to look forward to the eternal things and not worry so much about the earthly things. In being a disciple of Christ we are to press forward toward the mark that God has set before us. Because when we look back while we are walking we will run into or fall into something. Don’t look back; keep an eye on what lies ahead for you.
Jesus wants us to look to the greater priorities that God wants for us, and to not let the lesser priorities of life cause us to look back at the way we were. Again, we should not let life’s lesser priorities become greater priorities than God’s work because we then become of little use to Him, and we become unfit or unusable for His service.
So, we’re plowing along through our life, and we want to turn and look where we have plowed. For all of you farmers, remember that you cannot plow a straight line if you are looking back at the row you plowed. Don’t look back, because in doing so you will make crooked the straight path that leads to Christ.
So, what I am saying is, let’s see where God is working and look where He is leading us and go there. The old saying of, “We’ve never done it that way before,” doesn’t need to be in our vocabulary. God may have a newer and better way for us to do something. Let us not look back with a distorted view of where God has brought us from and compare that with where He is taking us to.
Having newness in Christ we sometimes look to our old life and see things that were not there. “Oh, I remember how good things were when we did it this way.” Why change?” We have an example of this kind of view when we read about the children of Israel, how after being delivered out of the hand of bondage of the Egyptians, and saved by the parting of the of the Red Sea they look back at their old condition and believe that they would have been better off remaining as slaves. They were so busy looking back that they failed to see all of the things God had done along the way: LIKE:
• They cried for freedom and God set them free.
• They thirsted for water and God sweetened bitter waters with a tree branch and allowed it to flow from a rock
• They cried for food to eat and God gave them bread from heaven
Let’s not distort our old way of life as we lived before the saving grace of Christ lifted us from all of that. Don’t look back upon it, but look forward to the wonders that Christ has in store for you. And when you do look back, look back upon what He has done for you to get you where you are today. You may not be where you think you should be, but you are where He wants you to be. Remember that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. He has a plan for our lives that we just cannot fully understand. But know that God is unfolding His plan before your eyes day by day.
Now, personally, for a lot of us we let the guilt of our past life keep us from reaping the rewards of our new life in Christ. Let us not be shackled by the things that we used to do without Christ. We need to remember that Christ has washed us with His blood and the things that we have done wrong in the past have been forgiven and we no longer need worry about them surfacing because those things were done in the ignorance of God’s grace and those things were done in the ignorance of Jesus’ gift of salvation. Remember that those things in our past are washed away and can never be used to shame us, because they were done by the old person. In Christ we are now a new person. And we can see in scriptures that we are not alone in the area of past guilt’s’:
• Jacob, with the stealing of his brothers birth-right.
• Moses, having to deal with his murder of an Egyptian.
• David, with the affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah.
• Peter, with his denial of Jesus
• Paul, with his murderous ways against all things Christ.
Paul the apostle tells us in :
Philippians 3:12-14 - “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”
Paul is also emphasizing the idea of not looking back at the way we were, but to continue to look forward to those things that await us as children of God. To look forward to the riches in heaven and not to waste our time on the corruptible things of this world that will soon pass away. A better me, creates a better church.
Scripture tells us that we brought nothing into this world and that we will take nothing out. Paul is telling us to not let the guilt of our past keep us from becoming something that keeps us from moving forward. He tells us to not look back on those things that we have done wrong because we have been washed by the blood of Christ.
God does not want you to look back on your past life, so why should you look back on and allow it to keep you from being the person that God wants you to be. History is a great teacher if you use it to press you forward.
Lot’s wife looked back in longing for her old life and it kept her down. Will you let your old life be a hindrance or a help? Think about how different you are today compared to the person you were before Christ came into your life.
Now let’s use that premise with where God wants us to go in 2024. We have accomplished a lot this past year with God’s help. Let’s not linger on our past accomplishments or failures. Let’s focus on where God is taking us. With that attitude, we can achieve great things for God. And isn’t that why we’re here?
Jesus never looked back at where He came from…He lived in heaven with the Father, but came down here to redeem man. Had He looked back we would not have the salvation that was placed into His hands to deliver man from the grips of sin. Jesus continued to look forward to His task at hand. So let your light so shine and don’t look back as you journey to the Father. Let’s press forward toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let’s make this New Year even greater than we can imagine. We can do that because God answers our prayers in an abundance of what we even ask. So let’s approach 2024 with the confidence and assurance that God will guide us if we will follow.
