Sermon Central
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Hanging On To The Past!
Contributed by Ivan Casteel on Apr 13, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: To encourage Christians not to look back on past life
PP0810 DATE
HANGING ON TO THE PAST!
Ex 16:22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.(KJV)
INTRODUCTION: All of us have eaten warmed over meals. Having just passed the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays we have had warmed over turkey, warmed over dressing, warmed over everything. I don’t mind having warmed-overs. Usually they are pretty good.
I’m sure there are people here who are sentimental about certain things or experiences. I can look back on certain things that happened in the past and enjoy living that experience over again. Some of them I don’t want to relive. However, for the most part, too many people live in the past. They are living on what transpired yesterday. It seems the older I get, the more I look back. That is because most of my life is behind me. Peter Marshall, who twice served as Chaplin of the US Senate said, “Never let the past be so dear as to limit the future.” That’s good advice. If we are walking forward toward tomorrow and looking backward to yesterday, we will stumble and fall.
During the wilderness journeys of the Israelites God provided manna or bread for them to eat. They were to gather just enough for each day and not store or put it away for tomorrow. If they did gather two days supply, the excess would spoil and was not edible. However, on the 6th day, they were to gather enough for the sabbath and the extra or excess would not spoil.
As I look around Christianity today, I see most Christians are trying to live on the bread they gathered yesterday. Many are not aware that it has spoiled.
I want to deal with some of the areas that we may be living in or hanging on to the past.
I. HANGING ON TO PAST BLESSINGS
The blessings of God are sufficient for each day. Each of us could stand and attest that truth. There is not a person here who could not give a testimonial of the blessings of God. We have a time in each service where we have a time for each of you to share some blessing that God has given you the past week. Wouldn’t it be strange for someone to begin telling us what a blessing a certain thing was that happened 10 years ago.
We are still in the early part of 2007. We have just had a great year. God has been very good to us and, we have seen many and great things done by His hand and through His grace and mercy. We have all been blessed by those things, but we cannot face 2007 looking back to those things that we have accomplished and seen God do in 2006. If we settle down on the past, we will become stagnated.
A. Blessings Of The Past May Have Been Good, But They Will Not Suffice For Today.
1. When I finished High School I started to work for $1.05 an hour in Tulsa. That was pretty good wages then for an unskilled teenager. But that wouldn’t be very good now.
2. When I was in Bible School I was required to read the O.T. through in one semester. That was one of the greatest four months of my life. I learned more about the Bible during that time, but I can’t live on that today.
