In new seasons, we often focus on what we should do more of. But sometimes, just need to simplify. In our series, Habits of a Healthy Heart, we’ll take a deep breath, make space for God, and allow Him to work in our lives.
Series: HABITS OF A Healthy Heart
Message 4: Don’t Look Back
Text: Luke 17:20-37 CSB
Pastor Tom Cogle
Sunday, August 4, 2024
There is so much fear, heartache, pain, instability in the world.
But as followers of Jesus, we do not need to lose our mind just because everyone around us is.
Luke 17:32 CSBRemember Lot’s wife!
Although God was done with Sodom and Gomorrah, He wasn’t done with Lot, his wife, and two of their four daughters.
· He still had a plan, purpose, and promise for them, in the future.
Genesis 19:26 ESV
But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar
of salt.
She looked back with lingering and longing. She prioritized her
past over her future. She wanted what she was leaving more
than what God had for her in the future.
We have a generation of believers now feeling stuck, wishing for
what was. People wishing things would “go back to normal.”
· Things have changed. We can’t go back.
But we have something far surpassing anything and
everything that has changed!
Hebrews 6:19 CSB
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
Sometimes we get stuck in a place we were only meant to pass
through.
The world is shifting, but we were born for this moment in
history that we are passing thru.
Our God reveals to us where our misplaced hopes are.
We can stop looking back at once was and start fixing our eyes
on Jesus and what He has instore for our future!
Don’t buy into the narrative of this age that you are a victim of
your past. What Jesus has done for us bigger than what
anyone has done to us or said about us.
Philippians 3:13-14 ESV
13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and strainingforward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
It’s time to “press on” and get moving into the purpose, promise
and plan that God has for you.
TALK IT OVER
Read Hebrews 13:8. How do you normally respond to change?
How does this verse influence the way you think about hope in
changing times?
Talk about a time when it was difficult to find hope.
How did you overcome that situation?
What did you learn about God as a result?
Is there an area in your life where you’re “looking back” and not
fixing your eyes on Jesus?
What would it look like to focus on Jesus instead?