it's time to get up and step into the promise and the purpose that God has for your life it's time to stop looking back it's time to let go of the things that have been holding you back it's time to believe again it's time to Hope again it's time to pray again it's time to lift up your eyes again it's time to believe God again it's time to believe in the goodness of God it's time to believe in the mercy of God it's time to believe in the future our world needs us to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith and to move towards the Eternal promise that lies in him we're gonna go to Luke 17 tonight tonight we're talking about don't look back and um I think it's very pertinent for where we are right now I love the word of God I love the word of God you're ready for the word I'm gonna turn to the woman next to you and say I'm ready turn to the woman on the other side and say you are not ready [Laughter] Luke 17. you all do not want to miss Easter at church and then I'm like Easter and then the next teaching series because we have an awesome Pastor that just kind of like prepares us all the way out so we have been working hard preparing the table for you for the next few months so honestly if you'd like not a churchgoer really good time to come is over this next season because I I think you're going to find that um you know you're going to encounter God in a very personal and real way I love this season of church life so you're going to love it glad you're at the chicks night and can't wait to see you at church so here we are at Luke 17 verse 20. now don't freak out by what I'm about to read just telling you it's in the Bible Okay so if you've got a problem with this blame God not me I didn't write this I'm just reading it with you okay so in Luke 17 20 it says being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come he answered them the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed nor will they say look here it is or there for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you and he said to his disciples the days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the son of man and you will not see it and they will say to you look there or look here do not go out or follow them for as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other so will the son of man be in his day but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation just as it was in the days of Noah so will it be in the days of the son of man they were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all likewise just as it was in the days of lot they were eating and drinking buying and selling planting and building but on the day when lot went out from Sodom fire and sulfur reigned from heaven and destroyed them all I bet you're so encouraged that you came to the women's night you're like oh my word okay we're burning cities down and here we go so and it gets better so will it be on the day when the son of man is revealed on that day let the one who is on the housetop with his Goods in the house not come down to take them away and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back remember Lot's wife whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it but whoever loses his life will keep it I tell you in that night there will be two in one bed one will be taken and the other left and I say to Nick often I am not the one that's going to be left behind I'm just letting everyone know that I'm putting it out there and they said to him where Lord he said to them where the corpse is there the vultures will gather now this sounds really edifying for a Thursday night at a women's meeting I mean here Jesus is talking about the kingdom realized in him already but it hasn't fully come yet and so he is going on I mean there's this eschatological this end time discourse and some of us are thinking Chris I can't believe you're pulling this out right now I mean you know when I came to Faith in the late 80s early 90s I mean everyone was talking about the end of the world and you know it's like are you going to pull out a chart now are you going to draw like funny things and you know I have a timeline and try to connect everything and we've had a crazy few years that's not what I'm going to do because here is the truth of the matter I really don't understand most of that text that I just read to you I hope that makes you feel better I don't know this is why we have Pastor Eric as our senior pastor and not me and so I don't really understand in fact this is all I really know about the end time this is all that I've understood after 33 years of following Jesus no one knows when it's going to happen so honestly spare yourself some of the reper trails on Facebook it will really just help you honestly because like nobody knows that's what the Bible says nobody knows and that we should live like it could happen tomorrow or it's not going to happen for Generations so that's really all I know you go wow that's deep I really have got no idea so I've got no charts I can't pull that that's not really why I read that text I read that text because right in the middle of Jesus having this massive discussion about the end times and Sodom and Gomorrah and the times of Noah and floods and things burning down and I mean looking at our world over the last few years we've had pandemics and we've had locusts and we've had gnats and we've had uh storms and we've had Cyclones and we've had hurricanes and we've got a war and it's like whoa It's all kind of happening in the middle of that in verse 32 Jesus just randomly goes like Oh by the way remember Lord's wife I'm like wow okay remember Lot's wife just drops it in there second shortest verse in the Bible the the shortest verse in the Bible is you are such a well-taught church unbelievable that's awesome second shortest verse in the Bible is remember Lot's wife fascinating his ministry for decades because of the 170 odd women that are mentioned in the scriptures Jesus only ever tells us to remember one woman now he tells us that we will always remember the deed of the woman that poured out the perfume over him but he said well remember the the deed what this woman has done will be remembered but he's only ever told us to remember one woman only one woman this is the red letters of Jesus this is Jesus 's words he doesn't we haven't got that many words recorded to throw away so three is pretty important why would Jesus in the midst of this discourse just go remember Lord's wife I mean look if I was Eve I would be like ticked off I'm like what do you mean remember Lord's wife I mean poor Eve still gets blamed for everything in the whole world forever for all of it's gone added for an item I mean if I was Sarah I'd be ticked off I'm like I popped out a kid at 90 with no epidural and you want to remember Lot's wife him Peter she always cracks me up because seriously who is coming out of slavery in a Red Seas partying and you're like hang on let me grab a tambourine and she likes we're gonna have a worship party on the other side I'm like go Miriam all right would be ticked off if I was Deborah I mean how many women's conferences you know I Deborah arose and I mean of course we know she only arose because no man would have but anyway you know how it is it's another sermon but why not Deborah or Ruth we could go on and on Elizabeth I mean I honestly Paul Mary I mean she was his mother right remember my mom who birthed me with no epidural would like animals and done no no not even Mary I'm like Jesus really Lot's wife so that started me down this road okay why Lot's wife and why you're writing about her in this context and I'm looking at the world in which we live today and I'm wondering whether it might be time for the church to remember Lot's wife so of course that takes me back to Genesis and if you know much about the story of lot and especially we read so much about what happened in Genesis 19.
it's deeply disturbing and speaks again to the world and the culture in which we live today I love that about the Scripture it talks about a lot of hard stuff doesn't whitewash it at all and that is a very disturbing chapter about what happens when the men of the city come to lot's house and he's got the angel of the Lord in there and it's it's it's really disturbing but we go through and there's this part that we're going to read in Genesis chapter 19 because I had to think what is it about Lot's wife what do we know about it I mean this we don't even know her name we don't know her name and she's got the shortest bio in history like Lot's wife I'm like okay that's awesome I don't know how that's going on your LinkedIn profile but whatevs Lot's wife and she's got this I mean she she only appears on the pages of scripture long enough to disappear literally and so you see in chapter 19 verses 15 to 26 as morning dawn the angel urged a lot saying up take your wife and your two daughters who are here lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city now we know the Sodom and Gomorrah there was great sin immorality iniquity in that City and the Lord had I'm burning it down it's finished and so he's going to save lot and it says but he lingered but he lingered so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand so this is the you know like they were literally Touched by an Angel girls like literally and it says by the hand the Lord being merciful to him and they brought him out and set him outside the city as they brought them out one said Escape for your life do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley escape to the hills lest you be swept away everyone say do not look back there is one thing one thing he was told do not look back now go to verse 26 just because I want to jump in here it says but lots this is all we know about Lot's wife but Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt so in the New Testament Jesus is saying remember Lot's wife and the only thing we know about Lot's wife is that Lot's wife looks back now it is interesting to me because the angel of the Lord's got them by the hand taking them into the promise and the future but in in the Amplified when it talks about Lot's wife looking back the word is she lingered she longed for what was and of course she would have been I mean her family her memories I mean I don't know if lot married her when he got to Sodom I don't know if he brought her in we don't know any of that but her family her memories her relationships who knows if she just renovated the house I don't know who knows what festivities she'd had in that City but her heart was there and she looked back with longing the word there meaning with longing that there was something longing for what was Longing For What Might Have Been now I know often when we talk of course Sodom and Gomorrah instantly we talk about you know immorality and great iniquity and that is so true but scripture also tells us and I don't know if I gave this scripture so I'm just going to read it from my Bible if I didn't give it to the team in Ezekiel 16 49 I want to read you if I didn't give it to them what the actual sin of Sodom was because it's very sobering for all of us of course it was iniquity I'm using a different Bible and the bad thing that happens for a preacher is when you use a different Bible they move all the books of the Bible around and so you are like honestly the Angels come in at night and they just go we're going to play with you right now so that you can look like you don't know where anybody and so then I have to go to the index that'll make someone feel better right there Ezekiel 16. 49 I want to read you this it says behold this was the guilt of your sister Sodom she and her daughters had Pride excess of food and prosperous ease but did not Aid the poor and the needy that could be a bible study on its own when you look at our world Pride prosperous ease abundance and don't care for the poor and the needy that was actually the sin of Sodom now of course there was the sexual immorality and iniquity and perversion and everything else that we know but there was a lot more to it than just that so it's interesting to me that the Lord's like I'm about done I'm about done with all of that and so as Lot's wife was leaving and she was longing for whatever perhaps it was the Comfort perhaps it was the ease perhaps it was the assets I don't know what it was but she did the one thing that the Lord had said don't do that don't look back and then scripture says she turned into a pillar of salt she was like calcified now depending on what which trip with which tour guide in Israel you go to they'll tell you that's Lot's wife I don't know if it really is but it's good for a preaching point you know let's just assume she's still there okay but the fact is that she turned into a a pillar of salt she was supposed to move forward into the promise but she got stuck in a place she was meant to just pass through because she looked back why am I saying all of this because in the last few years and as I've been traveling and I've just done another lap of the globe and it is amazing to me how many conversations I've been hearing well Chris you know in 2019 before the pandemic Chris you know before this happened a man before we had this pandemic before there was all of the unrest of 2016 before it's like everyone's longing for a world that once was longing for circumstances that we used to have Longing For What was but I would say that this would be a really good time on the earth for us the church to be remembering Lot's wife because we will get stuck and calcified in a place that we are just supposed to be moving through it's interesting to me that she turned into a pillar of salt in the New Testament Jesus says you and I are the salt of the earth and we have a world that we are supposed to assault with the goodness and the grace and the mercy and the love of Jesus if we get stuck in the past we're going to be calcified instead of salting a lust in a broken World in our future girls we've got to remember Lot's wife and start getting unstuck and moving into the future that God has for us [Applause] I wonder if anyone else has been stuck in this place some of you stuck in especially the last few years stuck in division stuck in pain stuck in disappointment stuck in betrayal stuck in discouragement stuck in disillusionment stuck in a fence stuck in bitterness stuck in unforgiveness wherever I travel I'm like whoa people are stuck people in the church and it's time for us to get unstuck because the promise of God is ahead the purpose of God is ahead there is no going back there is no going back to anything we are here in 2022 and our gods in 2022 and 2023 and 2024 and 2025 and 2020 there is no point looking back and we could glance back to remember the faithfulness and the goodness of God but looking back looking back I can't even tell you you know I I work a lot with churches around the world and I would hear language like you know well well our numbers in 2019 or our attendance here and I'm like we're not in 2019. it's 2022.
some some got stuck in 2016 here or 2017 or 2018 or 2019 or 2020 or 2021 we're not there we're here and God's with us here so maybe it's time to stop looking back some of us are not getting over offenses and bitterness and hurt and Division and anger and disappointment and discouragement because we keep looking back we keep rehearsing we keep ruminating we keep going down the rabbit Trails on Facebook not here this section over here this one this is this is the Twitter Rabbit Trail over here your Twitter is demonic but anyway so I'm just saying you you'll sleep better if you don't look at half that stuff I'm telling you but she was turned into a pillar of salt because she was stuck between where she was and where she was going I wonder how many have been stuck between where you were and where you were going you know I feel so strongly to remind us in the body at this hour stop lingering stop Longing For What was and it's worse when the disruption and the interruption came and you weren't expecting it nor did you want it when you actually prefer what was there you know do you remember and we're of course coming into the Easter season would you know we're just a couple of weeks away here a week away but do you remember on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 after Jesus had risen from the dead the tomb was empty except these two disciples that were going back to Emmaus because when you're disappointed and particularly if you're disappointed with God and you don't think he came through the way he should have come through for you you tend to go back to where you came from and so they were going back to Emmaus and Jesus came and walked alongside them but they didn't recognize I see him and I wonder over the last couple of years how often we didn't recognize Jesus walking alongside us because we were so busy looking down and we were so busy looking back and Jesus is standing right there and do you remember right there in Luke 24 verse 21 and they said after you know Jesus is asking them what's going on and in verse 21 they say but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel but we had hoped I wonder what it is that we've had hoped these last couple of years because the one thing that has been unveiled over the last couple of years is that many of us had misplaced hopes we had put our hope in the wrong thing and we didn't know that until it was taken from us and so they were walking with Jesus and they couldn't even recognize him because they had hoped he was the one and so they were looking down they were in no way recognizing who he was and they missed the fact that the god of the universe was with them because they were so stuck looking back at their disappointed hope and I wonder what it is that you might have hoped Chris I'd hoped that marriage was going to make it I I'd hope those kids were going to make it I I'd hope that person wasn't going to die I I'd hope that friend wouldn't have betrayed me I'd hoped I wouldn't have lost that job I'd hope that that business wouldn't have went bust I I'd hoped and for however long it's been our heads have been down and we've been missing the presence of God because we've been so consumed with our disappointed hope and yet the writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul both firm and secure Jesus is that hope and if we go beyond what would be a a normal natural lamenting and grieving season in our life and it goes on and on and on perhaps it's a recognition of the fact that our hope ultimately wasn't in Jesus it was in that person coming through or that situation coming through or that circumstance of working out the way we had wanted it to work out and when it didn't we thought God left us God didn't leave us because he never leaves us nor forsakes us I've become a Pinterest Hallmark Christian these last couple of years no no joke I used to like roll my eyes at like you know the cute little Pinterest you know Jesus will never leave enough forsake you and I'm like yeah whatever give me something deep in Greek Hebrew and Aramaic or you know Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever nowadays I'm like oh thank you God that you'll never leave me nor forsake me thank you God that you're the same yesterday today and forever because like nothing else is foreign but I wonder whether perhaps you've misplaced some of your hope and inadvertently you've become offended at God not recognizing that he's been with you the whole time and that maybe it's time to stop looking back at our misplaced hope and to realign Our Hope and place it in Christ now of course there's grief and there's lament and there's disappointment but when we bring that to the foot of the cross and when we place that in the hands of Jesus we don't grieve as those that have no hope we don't lament as those that have no hope because Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul both firm and secure so I wonder what we had hoped you know the fact is that when we first had the pandemic I I I I we had our Global team you know we've got 19 a21 officers in 16 countries and everybody was in lockdown except for Florida but the rest of the people that were the rest of the planet that was having a pandemic you know those of us that were um we were all like in lockdown and said we would have to meet all the time and I I would call it the upper Zoom room so we're all in the zoom and I'm thinking like if they could have the upper room in the book of Acts we're having the upper zoom and that's what we're going to do and I remember saying to the team right at the outset I read from Zechariah Chapter 9 verse 12 where you know it says that return to your stronghold you prisoners of hope I said look we're all prisoners at the moment except for Florida but the rest of us are all in a mandatory lockdown and we can't change that but we can determine the kind of prisoners that we're going to be and we are not going to be prisoners of Despair we're not going to be prisoners of fear we're not going to be prisoners of disappointment or discouragement or disillusionment or anger or offense we are going to be prisoners of Hope because no matter what is happening in the world around us Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever and Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul so I wonder whether today it's time to stop looking back and stop longing and to start looking forward the writer to the Hebrew says we fix our eyes on Jesus the author and the Perfecter of our faith I mean in this hour if you and I spend too much time looking around looking down looking back scrolling going down rabbit trails and crazy crazy Social Media stuff you will lose hope because there is an enemy of our soul in Revelation 12 12 says the enemy knows that his time is short so you're wondering why things have accelerated on this Earth at the rate that they have he knows his time is sure it's okay you don't need to panic we've read the end of the book we're already on The Winning Side Jesus Christ has already got the victory but you you must to stay in a place of Faith and Hope in a world that is so hopeless you got to fix your eyes on Jesus you've got to fix your eyes forward and stop Longing For What was grieve appropriately for those things I mean I've got friendships that I wish came into this season with me but they haven't there are people that have died that I wish didn't and there's appropriate greeting there's appropriate Lament and then we fix our eyes forward because we're still moving forward into the promise that God has so yes there's disappointment and yes we've all experienced discouragement and my word if you look around at some things in the church it's easy to get disillusions there's no doubt about it so we lift our eyes off our disappointment and off our disillusionment and off the people that have betrayed us and off the people that have let us down and we lift our eyes and we fix them on Jesus it always was about Jesus it always will be about Jesus we are in this thing for Jesus he is who we're running for he is who we are running to he is the one that is going to give us our prize this whole deal is about one man and one man alone and that is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus and he is our hope so what do we do because we want to be a people of hope we want to be women of Hope I really want the women of mariners to be women of Hope do you know what a testimony that is to this lost and broken Ward and the band can come up because I'll probably be speaking until the second coming if the ban doesn't come up they're like waiting for me and I'm just like oh okay yes y'all I love the chicks and I you wait in a few weeks I'll be in the Galatians series I'm going to be so disciplined I'm going to be so strict it'll be all the points our senior pastor is just over there I'm not looking at him I'm looking at you and I'm going to be really really good and all exegetical and it's all going to flow but gosh I love chick nights because we can just go there and I love chicken nights it's awesome but here is the deal that if you and I are going to move into the fullness of what it is that God has for us and if we're going to be Salt and Light in the world around us in a world that is so hopeless and it's gripped by fear with good reason without Jesus with good reason I mean look at the world but this is where we Christians actually get to shine and this is why you don't want to miss the Easter services at all because people need to know the truth Jesus is defeated hell and death so we're not freaking out he said I'll tell you what one thing that this last season maybe has just even revealed to you is if you like lost your mind over all of the stuff that happened and not you the chick next to you so just keep looking straight ahead you've got to ask yourself did you really believe that Jesus has conquered hell and death that death has lost its thing when people oh Christine aren't you worried you might die I thought I will I just have to live long enough it's going to happen to everyone I don't know anybody that's got out of life alive George Bernard Shaw said death is the ultimate statistic one out of one will die okay so while everyone's going like aren't you freaking out I'm like it's gonna happen the issue is not whether we're going to die every single one of us is going to die the issue is are we going to live the life that Jesus Christ has put us on this Earth to live and fulfill our god-given purpose and our God give a destiny that's the issue [Applause] Abraham went forth in hope against all hope he believed so I wonder whether we could be women of Hope in a world that is hopeless whether we could be women of Peace in a world that is chaotic and divided ask yourself when you're posting are you adding to the piece or are you adding to the chaos are you adding to the I know you've got an opinion God bless you Everyone's entitled to it just don't give it to everyone when was the last time you asked the Holy Spirit should I post I'm going to go over here because this Presbyterian Church is very religious over here I'm just going over here [Laughter] but I wonder whether we were people no matter I met some chicks for Mariners and in this crazy world their hope filled their faith-filled they're peace filled they're Joy filled their love filled they're kind maybe I'll go check out that church because that those people seem to have something I don't have I've never found a better time for evangelism in my lifetime than right now because people are going cray-cray and people are freaking out left right and Center so this is the best time on Earth to truly truly be Salt and Light and Shine for the glory of God on our Earth I truly believe this is our greatest moment for evangelism truly so let me end you know the Lord's doing a new thing and oh it's always painful when the old finishes but you know in Isaiah the prophet writes again behold I do a new thing says the Lord do you not perceive it most people don't perceive it because right now they're too busy freaking out but in the midst of so much of the pain that we've gone through so much of the chaos so much of the deconstruction so much of the Reckoning that has happened in the broader Church world as painful painful as it is God is in it all because he's doing a new thing and he's forging a new wine skin and he says I make rivers in the desert things spread out that God's in the business of making a way where there is no way God is in the business of of fulfilling its purpose and his promise and so while he's doing a new thing let's not keep longing for the old thing and when you're older that's even harder because we get stuck in a rut but to say Lord I don't want to miss what you're doing so what do you have to let go of if you're going to move into the new thing that the Lord has if you're going to remember Lot's wife and not look back you've got to let go of the power of other people's opinions you've got to let go of the shame of past failures and mistakes you've got to let go of resentment or anger or bitterness or unforgiveness or disappointment or discouragement or disillusionment you've got to let go maybe of comfort or ease or apathy you know maybe procrastination or excuses or blaming you've got to let go of that in order to lay a hold of the future I want to encourage you to prioritize your future over your past I want to encourage you to prioritize the future for the generations that are to come over the past you know the fact is that if we're going to do that girls we've got to drop all the if onlys man if only we didn't have a pandemic if only I didn't lose my job if only I was married if only this you gotta lose your families you've got to lay a hold of Jesus who's laid a hold of us for his purpose and some of us the best way we're going to move forward is to stop certain things coming out of our mouth like okay I've got to drop the if only I've got to drop the before the pandemic when this happened back when I was there and this happened and just begin to talk about the future it's been an absence of talking about the future over the last couple of years because there's been so much pain and so much suffering every realm of society has been hit economically socially morally politically environmentally spiritually and people like punch drunk so we the church have got to go full at least I can get my bearings because I'm fixing my eyes on Jesus what's going to happen in the economy I don't know what's going to happen politically I don't know what's going to happen environmentally I don't know what's going to happen morally I don't know what's going to happen sociologically I don't know but I am fixing my eyes on Jesus he is the author and the finisher of my faith and for the joy that was set before him he endured death even death on a cross for you and I so I'm going to end with this one verse in the book of Exodus it always cracks me up Samaritan's chicks what have I come to tell you tonight you know when Israel was leaving Egypt under the leadership of Moses the people the children of Israel started to freak out and you know what this was about to last for the next 40 years but anyway it started straight away so they're starting to freak out they're looking back and they're hearing the Chariots of pharaoh they're looking at all the Chariots and they can hear the sound and you've got to be careful what you look back at because when you look back at stuff you're not supposed to be looking back at you're going to see things you shouldn't be seeing you're going to hear things you shouldn't be hearing and it is going to paralyze and you you've got to look forward and so they were hearing this and and seeing it and they start murmuring humbling and complete goes to to the Lord and it's like you know more seriously you gave me these people I mean seriously and then I love what God Said and I just think as Jesus is telling us to remember Lot's wife from the Gospel of Luke that for those that perhaps haven't got the point yet I'm just going to give it to you explicitly from the NLT in Exodus 14 15.
