Looking Back or Ahead
Good morning and thank you for choosing to worship with us today here at Central.
I trust and pray that you had a wonderful Christmas filled with the rich blessings of the Lord and you had a special day with family and friends.
We are so thrilled to have each one of you worshiping with us today and a special good morning to our guests.
It is our desire that you enjoy the warmth and fellowship of the people of God, that you have a life changing experience with God, and that you discover the plan He has for your life.
Let’s make our profession together, this is my bible, God’s holy word, it is a lamp …
2009 has been a great year, but it has brought its own challenges.
• To many 2009 has been a year of economic stress. We have enjoyed plenty for so long that we have forgotten what it is like to have to really stretch our paycheck.
• To others 2009 was a time when their marriages were tested, and some broken and now they are trying to pick up the pieces and live life and find fullness and happiness again.
• To others it has brought the loss of a husband, wife, mom, dad, child, or loved one dear to our hearts and we have had to readjust and put on a happy face again.
• While to others it has been a time of health issues that you never planned on facing, and you have raging fivers ahead of you that you have never crossed before.
• To others it ha been the best year you have ever experienced willed with God’s grace, favor and provision.
Whatever kind of year it was to you, it is over and it is not time to stop looking back and begin looking ahead.
Philippians 3:13-14 NIV
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
I have heard it said many times that today is a cashed check and yesterday is a cancelled check, but tomorrow is an unwritten check.
Matthew 6:34 NIV
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
If we are to move into the things that God holds for our destiny, they we must release the past.
ILLUSTRATION
Sling shot.
The past is but an instrument to project into our destiny, or into the purpose that God has before us.
1. The Past must remain the past.
When Jesus was taken down from the cross, he was taken to the tomb of Joseph of Aramias (a borrowed tomb), where he was wrapped in a shroud (grave clothes) and laid to rest in the tomb.
On the first day of the week, Mary and two other ladies went to anoint his body …..
When Peter went into the tomb, all he found was the grave clothes where Jesus had laid.
When the Angel came, and Christ was physically raised from the dead, he did not take the grave clothes with him because he was not going to need them again.
They had served their purpose.
Your past has served its purpose.
• It has made you grow in the Lord.
• It has made your trust in Him become greater. (Learning to lean)
• It has caused you to realize who your are in Christ Jesus.
• It has caused you to realize that you can depend on Jesus.
• It may have led you to the place where you would not go, but you have discovered that God was there.
Yet now you must come to realize that that experience is over and it is time to leave your grave clothes behind.
You do not hang on to the things of the past to remind you of the past.
Jesus did not take his burial clothes with him to remember what he had done, he left them behind. WHY?
Because they marked the trail for those who have followed after him.
ILLUSTRATION
A study has been done on the grave clothes.
His facial features were on the cloth in the form of a double negative.
You might think, what is so important about that.
This was discovered in the late 1800’s.
The grave clothes have been preserved in a museum for hundreds of years before the study.
A double negative is made by very bright reverse lighting, used in photography, which has an effect similar to a lightning strike.
The era in which this was made was hundreds of years before photography.
Science has proved that these are indeed the grave clothes of Christ, and that he was raised just as claimed.
He left the clothes behind to mark the trail for you and me.
Let’s leave the past in the past to mark the trail for those who will follow after us.
2. The Past must be Left in the Past.
Matthew 4:18-20 NIV
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers; Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Fishing had been their past, but they were destined for more.
The word of God tells us that whoever is in Christ is a new creation, old things are gone, in comes the new.
Aren’t you glad that Jesus did not leave you in your past?
Israel Houghton sings the song:
I’m trading my sorrow; I’m trading my shame,
I’m laying it down for the joy of the Lord.
I’m trading my sickness; I’m trading my pain,
I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.
I am pressed but not crushed
Persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I am blessed beyond the curse
For His promise will endure
That His joy's gonna be my strength
Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning
Israel had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years when Moses came and declared for the lord to Pharaoh, Let my people go.
• God did not just remove them from Egypt’s rule, he removed them from Egypt.
• They had lived in Egyptian homes, and ate what was given to them. They had no silver, gold or resources, but when they left Egypt, they took all the silver. gold, and best clothing.
• At the Red Sea, God did not deliver the Egyptian armies to them; he delivered them from the Egyptian army. They left them behind.
• Egypt did not eat Egyptian food in the wilderness, they had eaten enough of that, God gave them Manna and quail and water from a rock, and made the bitter waters sweet.
• Then they got to Canna, they went in and conquered it.
• They lived in houses they did not build, ate food that they did not sow in Canna for, but they sowed for it in Egypt, they drank water from wells they did not dig and drove the inhabitants from the land.
After all of this, you did not hear from anyone sitting in Canna saying, I sure do wish we were back in Egypt.
CLOSING STATEMENT
Listen to me for a moment, this is very important.
They took twelve stones out of the Jordan River and built a memorial.
‘And when your children ask you, What do these stones mean? tell them all the good things the Lord has done for you.
What we leave behind will mark the trail for those who follow after us.
Rev. W.C. Harding, Rev. J.T. Brumbelow, Rev. Carl Malz, Rev. Gary Chapin, Rev. Ken Jones.
What these men left in the past is marking the trail, and shaping the future for Central today.
There are some of you holding on to things of your past, when God wants you to release them and thrust you into your future.
Some of you think that God cannot use you because of your past. (Can I remind you of a prostitute named Rahab that is in the lineage o Christ. Maybe King David who messed up so bad, but likewise is found in the lineage of Christ.)
You think, “If I release my past, someone will find out about it.”
1. What makes you think they will?
2. What makes you think they are really concerned about it anyway?
3. It will never actually be your PAST until you let go of it.
