There we go.
This evening, while we're speaking and going through God's Word, I want you to be thinking of a question.
And I want you to think of this question in reference to your life uh throughout the entire lesson.
Have you ever considered why your windshield is larger than your rear view mirror?
Now, I would love to take credit for this, but the idea originally came to me during one of the BNI meetings.
that I had attended with Brother Kozort.
And that was his quote of the day, was why your windshield is bigger than your review mirror.
And as I left, I couldn't help but notice the giant windshield of my Volkswagen van.
And how, uh if you're familiar with Volkswagen vans, how itty bitty tiny those little review mirrors are.
So much so that with the cabinets and everything else in it, it's almost like looking through a pinhole in a door trying to figure out what's behind you.
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Imagine driving a car.
Obviously, all cars have a windshield, obviously, that's larger than a review mirror.
That is unless you're driving a tank, right?
Why is that?
Why do we put such a large pane of glass in front of us?
uh
Well, obviously it's because where you're headed, what's in front of you is far more important than what is behind you.
Yes, we glance into the review mirror to take a reference as to what's behind us, where we came from, but our attention primarily is focused forward.
You can't drive safely forward while staring into the past is the idea here, right?
Spiritually, people crash.
There are problems each and every day.
But typically it's not because of what lies ahead that people crash spiritually, but over what's behind, because they can't stop looking behind.
Tonight we're going to take a look at four different references.
People that either did look behind in the review mirror, and those that did not look in the review mirror, but instead looked through their windshield.
If you would, go ahead and turn your Bibles over to Genesis 19, and we'll start in verse 24.
We're going to look this evening at Lot's wife.
We're going to look at Elijah.
We're going to look at Christ, and we're going to look at Esther.
Lot's wife, a little historical background about the danger of looking back.
Here we see Sodom and Gomorrah.
These were cities of wealth, cities of abundance.
Nestled in the fertile plains near the Dead Sea, uh they were about 13 miles south of Gomorrah was Sodom, right?
So to the human eye, they seemed prosperous.
We think the same thing when driving through Nevada now and we come across New Vegas.
On the surface level, it seems like they've got all the
money, things like that going on, offering ease and pleasure.
But beneath this facade, the cities were morally bankrupt, consumed by sin and decadence.
In Genesis chapter 19 verses 4 through 5, we read an express depiction of sexual immorality.
Over in Ezekiel chapter 16, it lists things like arrogance in hospitality and the neglect of the poor.
The people of Sodom had so much.
yet they chose so little righteousness.
God's judgment's not arbitrary, it was just.
They had been warned, but their iniquity had finally reached its peak in these cities to where now, those of you that have read it, we know the ending to this story.
Both cities were destroyed completely.
Sodom was destroyed by God's fire.
I keep getting tongue-tied.
A divine verdict on a city that refuses to repent.
So here we are in Genesis chapter
19 verses 24 and 25, then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven and he overthrew those cities.
Let's take a look back when we had talked about Genesis chapter 19.
In verse 17 it says, it came to pass when they had brought them forth from abroad that he said escape for thy life.
Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain.
Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." These were orders given to the family to leave behind Sodom and Gomorrah.
Specifically, he said, do not look back, do not stay there, keep moving forward.
Otherwise, you're going to be consumed.
Skipping forward in Genesis 19 verses 26, he said, but his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt.
The reason being is that Lot's wife's heart still lied in Sodom.
She was looking back in the review mirror more than she was in through the windshield of what she was taught.
Though Lot's wife physically left, her heart remained there.
When she looked back, this wasn't just a glance.
This wasn't, well, see you later.
It was almost like a grieving, a longing to remain connected to the past where she had come from.
Think of it this way, I had written an illustration.
Imagine running from a burning house with your children.
Your house is on fire, you've scooped up your family, you're running out the door, you're holding your spouse's hand, the fire's roaring out behind you, and you stop and look back.
Not in concern, but how many times would you look back in regret?
That's what Lot's wife did, and she was turned into a pillar of salt because of that.
The salt of her soul should have had a different purpose, not to season the ground with her regret, but it should have been used to season the earth with testimony, with
obedience, saying, look, look what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah.
We obeyed, so should you.
Instead, it said that she became a pillar of salt.
She became a monument to her own indecision.
God doesn't want statues.
He wants soldiers, doesn't he?
We sing the song, many, many Sundays, soldiers of Christ, arise.
We don't sit in our pews, we get to work.
He doesn't want us stuck in the past, he wants us to walk forward in his word.
Walk in the light as he is in the light.
Lot's wife, her heart was chained to Sodom.
Her past is something that paralyzed her future because she could not get her eyes outside of that review mirror.
I want you to think, are you holding on to anything from your past that's keeping you stuck looking in the review mirror?
Today we live in a society of what we call victim culture now.
Everyone's a victim of something, aren't they?
Everybody, either a physical element, uh
emotional distress, something that they happened in their past, or they simply blame it on the minority, don't they?
For the church, we're a victim of one thing or another, and that's why we're no longer growing, right?
We've heard this many times.
I say that there's a Greek word for it.
It's called hogwash.
Yeah, hard to pronounce, I know.
The church isn't growing because we stopped working.
It has nothing to do with money.
It has nothing to do with time.
has nothing to do with society.
The problem starts at home.
Specifically, the problem starts in here, right?
In our hearts, with our minds, not the one that beats, but the one in our heads.
It's not because people won't open doors.
It's not because society has changed.
It's not because we're not offering, as Rob said, coffee and popcorn out in the foyer.
We need to look forward.
We serve a God that wins, right?
Not a God that loses.
We can win this battle, but we've got to get out of our heads.
We've got to stop looking in the review mirror of past could-be's and have-beens.
First Corinthians chapter three, verses six through seven.
I have planted, Apollo swattered, who gave the increase?
God gave the increase.
So neither then is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God giveth the increase.
This verse does not tell us to sit on our rear ends and just watch.
We have to plant in water.
More so than that, we need to start thinking of things in a different light.
Why have churches of Christ over time, and I'm getting a little off topic here, but I feel like it's necessary.
Why do we think that we can equate or quantify success with bodies dipped in water?
That's not what this verse teaches.
Our success is by seeds planted, right?
That was Paul's job.
It says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, then baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've
commanded you.
Not only is teach before baptism, it's also after, mentioned twice as often.
As evangelists, as preachers, our job is to plant the seeds.
The Bible also says the soul that sinneth is the soul that dieth, right?
We've got to stop equating it with people in the water, but seeds.
Now granted, I'm not saying that baptism is not important.
It is the most important thing for that soul to obey and observe all things that Christ commanded them.
That needs to be our end goal, right?
Back to the lesson.
Cross-referencing Luke chapter 17 and verse 32, he tells us to remember Lot's wife.
Some of us are still looking back.
Could be past relationships, failures, past glories, has-beens, the 80s, the 90s.
Things were always better back looking in the rear view sometimes, right, it seems.
But God is calling us today, escape for thy life.
Our future is not in our past.
So where is our future?
Isn't it in God's promise?
His promise that He'll wash away all of our sins if we're obedient to Him?
Let's look at Esther, someone whose eyes were forward, toward, and to promise.
Go ahead and turn over to Esther chapter 4, and we'll start in verse 14.
While you're turning there, let's give them a little bit more historical and cultural background.
Persia, like many ancient empires, deeply a patriarchal society, Men held nearly all political power.
The royal court was dominated by male authority.
Women, especially Jewish women, right?
Didn't have much.
Very little public influence.
While of course royal women like Queen Vashti did have power, she was also only had so much level of influence throughout the palace.
Her position even as queen was still a very fragile one.
As we see in the Book of Esther, any act of disobedience or even perceived disrespect to the king could lead to banishment and even death, right?
When Vashti refused to appear before the King Xerxes, she was immediately removed from her position as queen, just because she didn't make one appointment.
I'm glad our doctors don't do that to us.
Non-royal women, however, had even fewer privileges.
Either as both a woman or as a Jewish exile, both were doubly disadvantaged, weren't they?
They would approach the king without being summoned.
It was a capital offense.
It would lead to your being killed.
Yet, despite the danger, Esther kept her eyes fixed on the prize, forward through that windshield.
She had to make a bold decision to step forward in what she knew was right.
She embraced her role and she risked everything, including her own life, to fulfill God's plan for her people, didn't she?
Esther chapter 4 and verse 14,
thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.
And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Jumping down to verse 15 and going through 16, then Esther bade them to return Mordecai this answer, go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, fast for me.
And so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law.
And look at this, if I perish, I perish.
She reserved herself to her fate, but she was going to do what needed to be done, with or without the prayers of her people.
Esther didn't dwell on the danger.
She didn't dwell on what she was going to give up.
She had one singular focus.
She was looking through the scope at her mission.
Like her, we cannot let our past stop us from embracing our future.
Cross-reference this with Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13.
It says, Brethren, I count myself to have apprehended but this one thing which I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are
before.
Don't forget, at one point Esther was an absolute nobody in almost everyone's eyes.
But she became a somebody when she obeyed God, right?
She mattered.
Are you ready to step into your purchase, your purpose, regardless of what you've left behind?
Let's jump over to Elijah.
If you would go ahead and turn to 1 Kings chapter 19 and we'll pick up there.
Elijah had a calling.
He had a mission.
He was told not to look back, but what was going on?
This was Elijah as he emerges from a time of very deep depression, right?
He had previously had his victory on Mount Carmel, as we read in 1 Kings chapter 18, where God proved his power over the prophets of Baal.
450 prophets of Baal and I mean he really socked it to him.
He even added insult to injury.
Well, maybe he's, Baal has gone to the restroom.
He just can't hear you.
Speak up louder.
Got them jumping up on top of the tables, cutting themselves, screaming all day long.
Hours and hours this went by.
Nothing happened from Baal.
What happened when he called for his Lord in a soft prayer?
Even the stones themselves in the ground where all the water was poured from all the buckets of water that they had poured, the barrels, right?
Every bit of it licked up dry in an instant.
Even the rocks consumed.
But here, Elijah faced a sudden threat from Queen Jezebel.
Fearful for his life because of what had happened, Elijah fled into the wilderness.
He feels exhausted.
He feels isolated.
And we see him described as feeling almost spiritually defeated.
Despite his success on the mountain with the prophets of Baal, he believed his mission had failed and that he was the only faithful one left.
In fact, in 1 Kings 19 and verse 4, he even asks God to take his own life as he's overwhelmed by his own despair.
But in response, God showed compassion.
Instead of rebuking Elijah, yelling at him,
What does God do?
He provides food, gives him rest, water.
He wants to strengthen him for the 40-day journey to Mount Horeb, or Sinai.
There, God spoke through not dramatic wind.
He didn't speak to him through an earthquake.
He didn't rage at him through the fire.
But we see it described in 1 Kings 19, verses 11 through 12, as a gentle whisper.
He was kind to Elijah.
He picked him up.
God reassured him that he wasn't alone.
In fact, he reveals in that passage that 7,000 Israelites had not worshiped Baal.
He was not alone, far from it.
And he gave Elijah new tasks, one included anointing his successor, Elisha.
Elijah's story shows that even after great victories, yes, we can win many, times.
Emotional burnout and sometimes doubt can set in, can't it?
Well, did I really do the right thing?
God's care is tender, it's patient.
It offers both rest and renewed purpose to us if we'll simply listen.
When Elijah finally passed the mantle to Elisha, it wasn't just a call to preach the gospel.
It was called to burn the bridges of the past.
What do we see Elisha do?
He left behind his wealth, his family legacy, his friends, security.
all to follow the call of God, right?
So let's look at the scripture here, 1 Kings 19 and verse 19.
So he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shephat, who was plowing, skip a little down, and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him.
And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me, pray thee, kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow thee.
and he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh and went after Elijah and ministered unto them.
Here we read of Elisha burning the plow.
He had no intention of turning around.
He fully embraced God's will with no rearview mirror.
It's like if he were sitting in the VW bus now driving down the road, this man would have reached up and ripped the rearview mirror straight off and threw it out the side of the
window.
He had no reason to look back.
Jesus' letter echoed this in Luke 9 and verse 62.
No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
When we realize we need to do good, we've got to go at it with all of our might.
A young man once told a missionary, I want to serve God, but I also want to keep my career, you know, just as a backup, just in case, right?
I heard this missionary reply to him, son, God doesn't use backups.
But I'll tell you what he does use.
He loves to use burnouts, soldouts, and all ends, doesn't he?
What are you still holding onto from your past?
If you are holding onto something, are you willing to burn the plow, stop looking back, burn it all for God's future?
God doesn't just want obedience, He wants full commitment, everything we have.
And finally, we have to look at the ultimate example of forward focus, right?
Christ Himself.
If you turn over to Luke chapter 9 and verse 51,
Jesus knew the cross was coming.
He absolutely knew the pain that was coming his way.
He knew betrayal was coming his way, and he knew death awaited him the moment he walked back into Jerusalem.
Yet where did he set his face?
Forward, straight to it.
We don't see him flinch, and we definitely do not see him turn back.
Luke 9: 51 says, it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.
This was a man absolutely determined to die on that cross for us.
Hebrews 12 and verse 2 puts it this way, looking unto Jesus, the author,
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
If anyone was ever the living embodiment of the saying, started it and I'll finish it, that was our Savior.
Matthew 10 and verse 34 says, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they
of his own household." When we obey Christ's calling, when we obey the gospel, we're going to get feedback.
And not a lot of it's going to be good.
You will have people hate you.
You will have people despise you.
but Christ never flinched.
A soldier doesn't flinch in the line of duty.
Jesus marched towards the cross with determination, purpose.
He never turned around.
Could you imagine what would be if he turned around and looked and said, Lord, let me go back to carpentry.
I'll keep that as a backup.
He didn't say that.
He walked onward and he fulfilled the mission.
If Jesus kept moving forward into the storm for us,
How can we keep looking back in fear?
Worried about our past?
Our mistakes?
Yeah, we need to look at them.
We need to learn from our mistakes, know how to apply God's teaching in a better way the first time.
But that's totally different looking back in reference, right?
Is that the red car I passed on the left?
Okay, it's back there, right?
You're making sure you don't run into them when you switch lanes.
It's the same thing here.
You look in your rearview mirror for reference to learn, to better yourself.
Yeah, your past is real.
It's happened.
It's done.
I've done many things that I'm ashamed of, right?
But it's not my future.
The rearview mirror is for reference, not direction.
We get our direction where?
In this book, this is our roadmap.
It'll never, never turn us along.
Wrong.
Genesis 19 and verse 17 says, it came to pass when they had brought them forth that he said, escape for thy life, look not behind me, neither stay thou in all the plain, escape
to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
And another section of the Bible, I didn't have it written down, so I can't remember the reference.
He says that, I think it was Isaiah, yeah, Isaiah 2, 2, and it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the
mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it.
We have something we're aiming for, right?
God's kingdom coming.
We're part of His kingdom now as part of the Church of Christ, but we need to look forward to the promise that God gave us.
We have got to stop looking back.
So my challenge for you this evening is to think of these next couple of questions.
Are you still living in Sodom like Lot's wife?
Do you look at your past and your mistakes and where you came from and do you look in regret to learn off of them?
Or are you looking in a form of regret that wishing you were still back there?
Are you ready to face your calling like Esther?
Will you put your face forward and say, if I perish, I perish?
Are you willing to burn the plow of your past like Elisha?
And are you willing to set your face forward towards the cross like Christ?
He did it for us.
If you've let your past consume you,
but you no longer want it to.
You have a family that's here ready and willing to help.
You have a savior that if he's obeyed, you can put on him in baptism and have the blood wash away all the sins of your past and start over with a clean slate.
It's the same as ripping off that rearview mirror and tossing it outside.
You don't have to look back anymore.
If that's what you need this evening, we'd be more than happy to help you put on Christ together as we stand.