Sermon Central
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Moving Forward
Contributed by C.a. Mccracken on Apr 5, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: One man said this..."If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always be what we’ve always been." This message deals with taking the next step forward in pursuit of God’s plan for our lives.
Gen 26:12-13
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.
13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:
If we look closely at our scripture we will notice that Isaac became great because of God’s blessing…
But it doesn’t stop there…
It then says… “and WENT FORWARD, and grew until he became VERY great!”
Isaac apparently was NOT satisfied with his initial blessing that already made him great…
HE WENT FORWARD….
AND GREW…
UNTIL HE BECAME VERY GREAT!
Notice that Isaac began to GROW when he went Forward!
Isaac went from blessing to greatness…
Then he “WENT FORWARD…”
He went BEYOND GREATNESS
TO BECOMING “VERY GREAT!”
The message here is quite simple:
If an individual desires to become great they must “Move Forward.”
The apostle Paul understood this principle when he said…
Phil 3:13 TLB
13 No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
Paul knew that the only way to progress in his walk with the Lord was by moving forward!
"And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:"
In this passage, God had already given Israel deliverance from the Egyptians.
And now they are headed toward the promise land after leaving Egypt.
Suddenly, they come to the Red Sea.
The enemy is behind.
They can’t go left or right.
They can’t go back.
THERE WAS ONLY ONE DIRECTION FOR THEM TO GO…FORWARD!
Moses began to cry to the Lord.
And God said… "What are you crying to me for? Tell Israel to go forward."
But there was no apparent way to go forward.
No boats or bridges.
They couldn’t possibly swim across
But God said "Go Forward."
And when they did, God did something He had never done before, and Israel escaped on dry land.
The unexpected happened when they began to MOVE FORWARD!
There is only one way to move in the Kingdom: MOVE FORWARD!
When we MOVE FORWARD the Lord will open the door!.
In Joshua 3, Israel came to another obstacle. The children of Israel found themselves at the brink of the water on the Jordan river…
What did God tell them to do? Go forward!
God again split the waters.
The Lord continuously allowed obstacle after obstacle to come before Israel and yet demanded they Move Forward.
There are some things we will never accomplish naturally.
It will always takes God to bring about the victory.
But God demands obedience from us. Obedience to “Move Forward!”
WE MUST:
Expect obstacles.
Expect resistance.
BUT…We can’t turn back.
So God’s Word for us is simple… "Move Forward."
The victory may come in one day, one phone call, one letter, one month…
Maybe even in one year…
But if we give up, we won’t get it.
We’ve got to continue to “Move Forward!”
Sometimes God delays His answers to test us.
The time between when the promise is given and when the promise is fulfilled seems like a wilderness experience.
And there is only ONE way to survive the wilderness.
Move Forward!
Keep walking in the last word God gave you until you receive another word.
In II Kings 7, four lepers defeat an army after they decided to Move Forward!
II Ki 7:3-8 (NKJ)
3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die?
4 "If we say, ’We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die."
5 And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there.
6 For the LORD had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses-- the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!"
7 Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact-- their tents, their horses, and their donkeys-- and they fled for their lives.
8 And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it.
