DON’T LOOK BACK

But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”  (Luke 9:62)

In ministry, it is tempting at times to look back, but Jesus warned us about it.  He used the example of a man plowing a field.  The farmer must keep his eyes fixed on the ground before him, if his furrow is to be straight. To look back is to go astray and maybe worse—to run into a rock, tree or fence post!

We must not be LIMITED by our past.  We all have a past—some of it is good, some of it is bad.  There are decisions we ought not to have made—and we may still be living with the consequences.  Life has no rewind button.  Regret will only hinder us from getting where we need to go.  “Don’t cry over spilt milk!” is the old saying. On second thought, maybe you do cry with remorse, confess in repentance, but then claim forgiveness and move on.  Failure need not be final.  The pages of the Bible are filled with men of faith who messed up, but moved ahead.  I know as a pastor I have made sinful decisions and others that were just stupid decisions.  We must not cave in to the paralysis of analysis.  Learn from it, but do not be limited by it.  The past needs to stay in the past.

We cannot LIVE in the past.  This is the polar opposite of limiting ourselves by past failures—it is relying on previous successes.  This happens when we do not succumb to regret, but nostalgia.  It is, “The good old days” syndrome.  We idolize the way it used to be—which is seldom as good as we imagined anyway—and this hinders us from embracing the opportunity of the present time.

Paul had this wonderful resolve,

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  ‎Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:12-14)

If we are not alert, we can rest on the results of effective ministry, and in the present shift into neutral.  Ministry effectiveness slows and eventually stops when we do.  “The victory of yesterday becomes the sin of today if it keeps us from the challenge of tomorrow.” ((R.B. Oullette).  Let’s grab the plow handles firmly, look straight ahead, and go!  Don’t look back!

INVINCIBLE

Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: “Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.”  (Jeremiah 36:27-28)

How would you feel if on Sunday morning as you went to the pulpit, the deacon chairman grabbed your sermon notes, cut them up with scissors, and burned them right in front of the congregation?  Would you be sad?  Would you get mad?  Would you turn to flight?  Would you stand up and fight?

Jeremiah, the faithful prophet had been given a message for wicked King Jehoiakim.  He so despised God’s Word as to cut it into pieces and burn it in front of the court officials.  What did Jeremiah do?  He wrote the same message and added to it—a message of judgment for the king and his kingdom.  There is a time to speak to power.  If God gives us a message we dare not flinch in the face of opposition.  The Word of God is invincible!

Old John Bunyan believed that—and preached accordingly.  His arrest was ordered by the king of England, whose tyranny Bunyan had spoken against.  He was imprisoned for twelve years for preaching the Gospel.  His wife, Elizabeth, pleaded his case before the judges.  She was alone, raising their four children, and begged to have her husband released.  Of course Bunyan would be set free on only one condition—that he stop preaching.  Elizabeth’s response, “He dares not leave preaching, my lord, so long as he can speak.”  Was it so?  The judges pressed Bunyan for an answer and this was it: “If you free me today, tomorrow I will speak in the streets that all men have a right to worship God as conscience guides them, and that the state has no right to tell them how to worship.”  It was in the Bedford prison that Bunyan had a dream that was put to paper, and became the immortal, “Pilgrim’s Progress.”  The Word of God is invincible!

I do not know what you are facing, dear brother.  Maybe no one has burned your sermon notes, or cast you into prison for preaching.  Still, if we are faithful to the Word and speak out against the world—we know there will be hostility to some degree.  On the present trajectory in this nation, we are facing increasing opposition to the Gospel.  Some dear sister sits and scowls during your sermon.  A deacon verbally chastens you after the service.  You receive that dreaded anonymous letter attacking your ministry.  Just preach anyway.  Remember, the Word of God is invincible!

THE LEGACY I WANT TO LEAVE

As I approach age sixty, it is a sobering reality that I have rounded the final turn, the homestretch beckons, and the finish line is in sight.  Recently, celebrating twenty years at Pole Creek, serve to remind me that I will someday preach my final sermon there.  Who knows how long my tour of duty will be?  No matter how young you are you have a deadline for the end of your ministry.  What kind of legacy will we leave?  I can think of no better aim than what Paul described to the Ephesian elders:

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.  ‎And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.  And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.  But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.  “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.  Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.  For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.  Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.  Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.  “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.  I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.  Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me.  I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.  Then they all wept freely, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.  (Acts 20:17-38)

This is the legacy I want to leave.  May God help us!