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Lot’s Wife – Don’t Look Back (Genesis 19:15-26)

Genesis Chapter 18 Overview

Lot’s settlement would be near the southern end of the Dead Sea, possibly in present-day Jordan or southern Israel.

Abraham’s settlement (Hebron) is in the West Bank, in modern-day Palestine.

God Comes to abraham

abraham intercedes for area

Sodom

Gomorrah

Admah

Zeboiim

Zoar (Bela) – The only city that was spared (Genesis 19:20-22).

God does not find 10 rightgous men in the city

The Angels seize the famiiy and say

English Standard Version Chapter 19

17 Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

TransitionaI thought: I want to PAUSE for a moment

HS side note : where ever the rightoues are not present detruction follows

Proverbs 29:2: “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan." (NIV)

Show pics of sulfer balls

sulfer was seen as punishment the fire weould destroy everything and the posion would destroy the ground

and Map of the valley of Jordan

The destruction isnt the point of the sermon

i actually want to look at situation that happeneds in lots family

English Standard Version Chapter 19

God Destroys Sodom

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Lots wife gets a really bad reputation in scripture

Why did she look back?

This was her home, she was from the area

She was attached to this

God was about to destroy, judge or remove something she was attached to

and as her physical body is moving in one direction her heart is another.

WE

Big question: have you ever felt this way? Can you relate to this?

have you ever felt torn between to destinations.

ever felt like God was calling you to go one way but you were still holding on to the past

maybe it’s a past relationship,

Maybe past direction of your life

When God calls you its important that we move forward. and don’t look back

Why this is hard for us , because the reality is sometimes we are still in love with the parts of our life before we met jesus or in the comforability that we are in in the moment.

you know he has saved you, but you doubt that he can move in your life

you know God has the the ability to save you but does brother and change his

its called being double minded it means that you waiver being to opinions. usually pertaining to faith

James 1:6-8 (NIV) “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do."

Me Example

this is my struggle right now

one my hope is that i wont

i know what i heard God say

While the lord has me i’m going to pastor , i’m not gonna be afraid to learn and grow, my work dosn’t represent my worth, i’m going to finish well with no scandel’s, ill be the lover of one wife, the desire that he has giving me to have family is not a fluke .

what he says about me is true

i’m note sure what i looks like for you but some of y’all just need to agree with what he is saying about you.

Me looking the wrong way as i drive

One of the most dangerous things while driving is moving in one direction while looking in another.

you don’t just endanger yourself , but you put the people who are along for the ride with you

– In life, if you're constantly looking back at past mistakes, regrets, or hurts, you risk veering off course. Keep your focus on where God is leading you, not where you used to be.

every single one of you in this room has a calling

God has a plan for you, the plan doesn’t always look greener but it is better, honest, purity, kind, to have a good name.

God can use you, but you have come when he calls, even if you don’t understand., even when your scared, even when you cant see the way forward.

remember this he is trust worthy

The Israelites at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10-16)

English Standard Version Chapter 14

10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

pictures pf the red sea crossing

The people are trapped on both sides

most would say that they only had one option which was forward

but the reality is they had 2

to go back into what was bearable or familar or to proceed in the direction that God had for them

English Standard Version Chapter 14

15 The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go

they had options

When God Call Us We Have A Choice

We Can Not move

we can harden our hearts

and choose our pleasure our comfort over gods promises and plan

the rich young ruler

You Can Be Dragged Forward

lots family was dragged

its by his grace that sometimes the lord will push you in the way you need to goe

You Can Press Forward

intentionally moving toward in the direction that the lord wants to take you.

paul in philipians 3 tell the people not to boast their acolades because he has more

still he dosnt count it

because he want to experince christ and all his glory and move the goaal of truly having a cofient intamate relatioinship with the lord

English Standard Version Chapter 3

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way,

Paul says that the mature think this way

that we dont just move in forward motion in what God has for us

but we dont focus on the past, but we shift our focus forward

this dosnt mean you have clarity

you know the plan

but what you do have is confience, this road im going to take is the one you have for me and even if it isnt even if make a wrong turn you are going to show up and get me back on the right path.

my trust is in you

my confidence is in you

you have a track record of coming through, your a man of your word, you will not forsake the rightous, the steps of a rightous man are ordered by God

Learn the lessons

Note the testimony 

Find the purpose 

Move one

transition: Don’t allow yesterday’s pain to destroy tomorrow’s promise.

This is a promise for you , but i also believe this a prophetic word for this church this year

the word of the year is FORWARD

I believe God wants us to press forward letting go of situations, and bad mouthing, we cant move into what God has for us and still have our hands clench in the past, we can but we wont be effective. we cant not stay stagnate anymore, we have to move forward into what God has for us, for his people , for this city.

Isaiah 43:18-19New International Version

18 “Forget the former things;     do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing!     Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness     and streams in the wasteland.

God is not done, we are small right now , but we are mighty, we are small but we are healthy.

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