Don't Look Behind to Follow God - Jeff Ryan - 3TC Podcast - 12/01/2024

Jeff Ryan discusses the importance of looking forward to God's plan rather than dwelling on the past. The story of Lot from Genesis highlights Lot's hesitation to leave Sodom despite God's warning and his wife's fatal glance back, which turned her into a pillar of salt. In our lives, we can avoid the "golden handcuffs" of sin and cultural comforts and fully embrace Jesus as our sanctuary. 

Welcome to Three Timbers Church! We are so glad you found us online and encourage you to explore all there is to learn about our church located in beautiful Bennington, Nebraska. When you come to Three Timbers, you can come as you are to experience the love of Jesus through the people of God. ​

Whether young or old, single or married, new to church, or a lifelong attendee, there's a place for you here. We invite you to join us toward a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. Our goal is to share the passion, power, and presence of Jesus with others. We believe in supporting families through service, education, and loving one another as Jesus loves us, unconditionally.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today, as we kind of get ready to hear from God's Word and bring it to our confession of sentiment, I wanted to ask you just to be in prayer for Garrett, who couldn't be here this morning, he tore a muscle in his back, and so he is home resting, and thankfully, we had people step up to help us with this morning, the kids and we're working through getting everything set for Wednesday. There will be no friends giving tonight, or middle school or high school youth as Garrett tries to get well, he's probably going to be laid up for about seven to 10 days. So we may be asking you for some help as we prepare for the kids Christmas show coming up on December 15, I will say we had Thanksgiving, and we probably all talked about many of the things that we are thankful for the people around the table, the people in our lives, but hopefully, the thing that we are most thankful for is God's grace. God's grace in our lives to remind us that we're not perfect people, that we make mistakes, and we make the same mistake a lot of the same times, but God is faithful. We just think about how faithful God is. And part of being the church are being people that are not perfect, but understand who God is. And so we confess to God our sin, a sin that he's already aware of. God knows that we are not perfect. And so we take this time during the service, and we quietly confess our sins to God, and then we read the good news of First John. But let us come to God now confessing our sin. Lord, as we come, we confess our sins of omission and commission, Lord, You are aware of all of our sin, even if we are not and so. Lord, we come telling you what you know. Come. Lord, not with fear, but with faith, because you forgive us as we begin this journey in the Advent season. Lord, we know that it is a journey of hope and joy and peace. So Lord, I pray that through this confession and through our reciting the Scripture, Lord, that we can have that hope and that joy and that peace, Lord, because we are a forgiven people, and we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen, join me now in reciting the good news from First John one, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I have to confess. I know Gluttony is a sin, and there was a lot of gluttony in my house this last few days, and it was watching sports. We watched a lot of sports, and it was gluttonous, and it was glorious, I have to tell you that. And when you watch sports, you're reminded that there are some athletes that kind of transcend sports. They become bigger than their sport, that people who don't even follow that particular sport will know of this particular athlete. One of those athletes for me, is Satchel Paige. Now you may not know the name satchel page, or you may know the name but not know all of the details about Satchel Paige. Satchel Paige was a pitcher in the Negro Leagues. He began his semi pro pitching career with the mobile tigers. He then moved on to the Chattanooga Black Sox, and as the day would travel around, satchel was so confident in his pitching that he would have his infielders sit down as he pitched, try to taunting the batter to say, they don't even need to stand up, because I'm that good. An old satchel would pension. He would strike them out. Sachs will page holds a record for debuting in Major League Baseball at the age of 42 years old, just around my age. And then he stayed in the major leagues until he was 57 years old. Now I don't tell you this to give you a history lesson on sexual page, but I would encourage you to go learn about him. The reason I bring him up is because he was known for saying some pretty iconic things. And one of the things that he said that always caught my attention was he says, Don't look back. Something may be getting on here. And I love that phrase, and the way I have come to understand that phrase is that the windshield of our car is bigger than the rear view mirror, and we have a tendency, instead of looking out the windshield to see what's in front of us, we have a tendency to look in the rear view mirror. And see what is behind us, the pain and the problems and the perks and all of these things. But here's the challenge, if we get so busy looking in the rear view mirror, we can't move forward with God. See, God has a big future for all of us. God has a plan for everyone of us. And if we look at the windshield and we begin to look forward, we can see God's plan coming into focus, and it's a glorious plan that we start down the road to Advent, but if we focus on what's in the rear view mirror, we will miss what God has for us. And so as we begin our journey today, we're going to talk about that. And there's a wonderful example of that in Genesis, chapter 18 and chapter 19. And what we have to do is understand a little bit of context. So we know the story of Abraham and Sarah. They wanted to have a child who were well advanced in years. And we read in Genesis 18 and 19 that an angel shows up and tells them that they're going to have a child in a year and be advanced in age. Sarah just laughs, and the angels said, Is there anything that's too hard for God? And so as these angels come in and they're provided all types of hospitality from Abraham and Sarah, then they begin to walk, and as they're walking, they see Sodom and Gomorrah, and they point out how God is going to bring judgment and destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, because it was this wicked place. It was filled with debauchery. Everything that could be against God happened here. And so we see this interaction in Genesis, 1819, between Abraham and God, where Abraham said, I know you're going to destroy this place, but if we find 50 righteous people, will you spare and God says, yes. Then Abraham continues to kind of have this up to get it down to five people. If you find five righteous people in Sodom, will you spare the city? And they said, Yes. The story that trans first to lot, which is Abraham's nephew, and angels come and visit lot. And as they are visiting the townspeople in Sodom, who were these wicked people? Heard that these two men, these two angels, were there, and they came over demanding that lot send them out so that they could just violate them and be horrible to them in every possible way. And Lot doesn't know what to do. And so just as the townspeople are trying to break into the house, the angels kind of pull lot back in telling them about the destruction that God is about to bring to Sodom. And that's where we're going to pick up our stories. But let's pray. Join me, Father, we thank You for Your Word, which is a lamp unto our feet. And Lord, I pray that Your Word, though coming through my sinful heart, Lord, would be from the Holy Spirit. The Lord it would speak to us right where we are. Give us hope. It would give us encouragement, and Lord, it would put us on a path, Lord, to understanding the meaning of Christmas and the hope that you bring. We ask this in the name of Jesus, amen. So we're going to be reading from Genesis, chapter 19, and we're going to start in verse 15, and I'm going to be reading from the NIV. So I hope you've got your your Bibles open, please. I want to encourage you bring your Bibles to church. Bring up that Bible app on your phone. So again, Genesis 19, chapter 19, we're going to start in verse 15. Here's God's word. With the coming of the dawn, the angels urged lot saying, Hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when this city is punished. When he hesitated them in grasped his hand in the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out. One of them said, flee for your lives. Don't look back and don't stop anywhere in the plate. Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away. But lot said to them, no, my lords, please. Your Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me and spare in my life. But I can't flee to the mountains. This disaster will overtake me at all time. Well, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it. It's very small, isn't it. Then my life will be spared. He said to them, very well, I will grant this request to it. I will not overthrow the town you speak of, but flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it. That is why the town is called Zoar. By the time lot read so are the sun had risen over the land. Then the LORD rained down, burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew the city and. The entire plane, destroying all those living in the cities, and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. As we said earlier, we need to understand the relationship between Abraham and lot, lot was Abraham's nephew, and though they were from the same family, they were very different in how they lived their life, how they viewed their life, how they approached things. Abraham was a humble man who is seeking God, and we see lot who was a very successful person who put himself first in everything? Lot came, and lot Abraham had an opportunity to buy land, and lot made sure that he got the best part of that land. See, Lot was so influenced by culture and what other people thought he should do and he should think. And then he was driven more by culture than he was my kingdom. And so when this opportunity came to get this land, we see how lot puts himself ahead of his family member, Abraham, and where this this land was, it was kind of right on the border of Sodom. And again, we know that Sodom was a place that was wicked, it was nasty, it was debauchery. It was a place where everything that people wanted, they did, they had no care about God, they had no care about anybody else. It was a terrible place to be. And so what lot thought was that he could live right there, in a culture, or in a world that was filled with all this anti God type of mentality and somehow not be impacted by that. So many of us think that we can live as the world lives and not become exactly like the world, and we can't, and we see that here with lot. If we go back just a couple of chapters, we see that lot is sitting on a gate sitting on a fence. And why is that significant? Because it would have been the entrance into Sodom. So if he's sitting on the gate, if he's sitting on the fence, he's got one foot in Sodom, which let's call that the culture, and then he's got one foot outside of Sodom, let's call that the kingdom. And so he finds himself straddling with one foot in the culture and one foot in the kingdom. Now in order for him to be in that position, to be on the gate, he had to be trusted by the elders of Sodom, the people who ruled Sodom, they had to say he's one of us. He thinks like us. He lives like us. And because we believe he is so much like us, we're going to put him in this very prestigious position of being able to sit on the gate, to be the gatekeeper. So what we can learn from that is that he compromised his faith. He thought that he could have one foot in the culture and one foot in the kingdom, and we know that that is not possible. He was confused. He was caught between two worlds trying to have peace with God, because, look, God got one foot in the kingdom, but also wanted to make sure that he was accepted and liked by people. And isn't that a place that so many of us can find ourselves? We want peace with God. We really want to have peace with God. We really want to have a good relationship with God, but we also want people to really like us. We want to be accepted by people. And So lot's mentality was like, I know what sin is, and I know it's bad, but it's not that big a deal, is it? Lot thought that I'm living for God. That's that's really important for me. I want to live for God, but it's not the most important thing for me. Lot said I want to obey God. I really want to obey God, but as long as it makes me happy. Lot was confused. Lot was trying to live in two worlds. And you can't live in two worlds. And we see this confusion, because when the towns people came and demanded that that he send out the two men, the two angels, he wanted to please everybody, so he he kept the two angels in, but then sent out his daughter. He was a man that was confused, trying to please too many people. We look at this story, and when the angels came to Abraham, they received hospitality, but when the angels came to lot, they received hostility. When you read this story, you see that that lot goes to his son's law. Remember, he's a father of two girls, and he goes to his sons in law, and he says, Look, Sodom is going to be destroyed. Judgment is coming. God is going to destroy this city. We've got to get up. These are the young men that are going to marry his daughters. And what did these young men do? They left you. They laughed at their father in law. Why? Because they knew he didn't take sin very seriously. He didn't take it very seriously. It wasn't that big a deal. Maybe he compared his sin to other people and make sure he always looked better than them. But they laughed at him because they knew he doesn't live as a man who's going to be judged. So why should we be worried about being judged? He doesn't live as a man who's worried about sin. So why should we live as people worry about sin? God has said he's going to destroy your hometown. I want you to picture that. What if God told you he's going to destroy where you live, that God is going to rain down and bring judgment and destroy, and God sends an angel to say, you gotta get your family and you gotta get out. We all heeded the warnings, but the tornados came through, and when they said, get to the basement, we went to the basement, but here we have God telling people I'm bringing judgment, and I'm going to show you mercy. I want to give you a chance to get away, to get out from the judgment I'm bringing. And what does it say in verse 15 and 16 that he does? He does the same thing that you and I do. He hesitated. He hesitated. He had to, had to think about it for just a second that God was going to bring down fire and destroy everything, everyone and he hesitated. Why would he hesitate? He liked his life. He was comfortable. He was confused. He did not understand the situation or the circumstances, because he didn't think sin was a big deal, and so he hesitated. But in God's great mercy, we see that the angels grab him and his wife and his daughters and say it's time to go. And here's what they say in verse 17, flee. Your lives depend on it. Don't look back. Don't stop anywhere in the plains. Flee to the mountains. Pretty clear that God's Messenger said it's time to go. Your life depends on it, and to put that in context, that is sin is serious, and God will bring judgment, and the only way that you will be saved is if you leave this sinful situation and flee the mountains. Understand that mountains were a place of sanctuary, a place of protection, a place that you could go to be safe from the elements, but also from anyone that would want to harm you. So the mountains were a really safe place to be. We have that safe place to be to escape God's judgment, and that's in Jesus. That's our safe place, right? Our safe place is to be in Jesus. We did that confession of faith because we're all aware of our sinfulness, our imperfections and our failure, and we think if I have to stand before God based on that I'm going to be destroyed. But if I go to my safe place, which is Jesus, I avoid the judgment, I avoid the condemnation, I avoid all that when I go to Jesus. And so here's this incredible moment that that the angels come and they bring lot. They grab lot by his hand. They grab him lot by his wife's hand, his and his girl, and he brings him out. He brings him to the place of mountains. And you would think a lot would be like, praise God. I am not going to be judged in this fiery thing that God's going to rain down. But what does lot say? When you look at the text, what does he say? He says, I can't make it to him. God's going to bring down and destroy the city. He He gives you a break, even though he hesitate, he gives you an escort out by angels under a private export out. It says, I got you, I got you a safe place. I want to protect you. And he is I can't make it to the mountains. And I read that, and I thought, How many times have I said, God, I can't make it to the mountains of protection and comfort and peace of just being in your word every day. How many times have I said to God, God, I'm struggling. I know it's coming, but I can't make it to the mountains. Lord of being in prayer every day because, Lord, I'm too busy. How many times have I said, Lord, I know that there is hope. In your word, I know that your scripture will will lead you to a place of comfort and safety. And how many times do I say, Lord, I can't make it to the mountain of being in your Word or studying or being in a life group, Lord, I just can't make it to the mountain. How many times have I struggled with discouragement and stress and anxiety, and know that Lord, if I come together with my brothers and sisters who are walking that same road with me, Lord, I know I'm going to be encouraged, Lord, because when I show up, God, you show up and awesome things happen. And how many times you say, Lord, I can't make it to the mountain for worship today? That's what he said. What lot was doing was he was dismissing God's provision of protection. How many of us dismiss God's provision of protection because we don't want to go to the mountain and we miss out. So he starts to bargain with God, Hey, God, Hey, God, I kept making the mountain buddy, there's a nice town right here. Oh, it's small. I don't want a big town. That's not I'm not a big town guy. God, I'm so humble, God, that when I disobey you, I'll do a really nice and could I have this small town? And here's the thing, God offers us sanctuary and protection and peace in Jesus, he does. But if we say we don't want Jesus, we just want this little, small thing, God will say, okay. God said, Fine. You want to be in the fire zone. You can be in the fire zone, but that's not God's plan for us. God wants us to go to the mountain and find peace. Here's the thing is crazy. This is not the first time that God saved Lot and his family, okay, they were prisoners of war. God saved them. God brought them out of captivity. And you would think that they would be like, Okay, God, thank you. You brought us out of captivity. But you know what the scripture says that they did? They return to Sodom and their possessions? There's a scripture that says a dog always returns to his father. We always return to our sinful ways if we don't go to the mountain. And so they, they they get all this stuff. They get free. They go. And now we come into this part of the story, where it talks about Lot's wife. Now we don't know what her name was in any way, but we know that she knows that God, God brought her out of captivity along with the family. We know that that God showed up and spoke through the angels and said son was about to be destroyed. So she understood who God was. She was probably someone who professed a faith in God. She comes from a family that's an Abraham. So she understands who God is, she understands what God has done. And so we come to this moment right here, of of having to leave, and she can't really bring herself to leave. Why? Because Sodom had a hold over her heart. She liked her life. It was comfort, his communion. Her husband was prominent. He sat on the gate. He was wealthy. He did really well for himself. So I don't want to leave this. This is comfortable, but God was about to rain down and destroy but we could see her heart earlier, because when the angels came, remember it was lot who showed them hospitality, not Lot's wife. And in this culture, it was customary that the woman of the house would provide the food and the drinks and the company. She didn't want to have any part of that. Maybe she thought, well, sin is bad, but little sin isn't that bad, is it? She just didn't feel sin was that big a deal. Years ago, I worked with Israel. I was in the business world. I worked with a man who worked for us part time, and he was a flight attendant, and he would come and he would constantly complain about how much he hated his job. I hate the hours. He says, Oh, I hate my coworkers. I hate my schedule. I hate the uniform. I hate he's kept. He's out every time I talk. He hated everything about so I finally said, I said, Jay, I said, Why are you working this job when all you do is talk about how you hate it? And he said, You know what? He says, it's the golden handcuffs. I said, What? What are you talking what are the golden handcuffs? He says, they got me. He's like, I'm in handcuffs, but they're really nice handcuffs. They're made of gold. And he says, I do hate all those things, but he says, I love the perks. I love the perks. And I think that's how Lot's wife looked at it. She probably wanted to leave Sodom because she knew destruction was happening. Common sense tells us somebody would not want to stay in a city that's about to be destroyed. You. But maybe, maybe she liked the perks. She liked the perks of her husband being rich and successful. She liked the perks of being profit. She liked the perks of some thing. And then we read in verse 26 where it says, as they were fleeing, as the angel was leading Lot and his wife and his two daughters out, it says that Lot's wife turned and looked back. Why would she turn and look back? Because she liked the perks, she liked her lifestyle, she liked what she had, and she did not want to give it up. But by turning back, she was disobeying God. Said, God, I want to do it your way. God, I want to do it my way. God, I'll leave, but I'll leave under my terms. I'll be saved, but I'll be saved on my terms. Looking back leads to going back. And when we look back and we say, I like the purse, we're going to go back to living and thinking the way that we did listen to how it's said here in Luke nine, as they were walking along the road, a man said to him, Jesus, I will follow You wherever You go. Jesus replied, boxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. He said to another man, follow me. But he replied, Lord, first, let me go bury my father. Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Still another said, I will follow You, Lord, but first, let me go back and say goodbye to my family. Jesus replied, No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. We cannot move forward with God and His plan if we're looking back. That's what this text is teaching us. That's what we see with Lot's wife. She could not move forward for God's provision and protection, etcetera, because she was looking back, think about the parable of the rich young lord. He says, I want to follow you Jesus. Jesus says, Go, obey all the commands. Goes, Oh, I did all that, right? And then Jesus said, Go sell all your stuff and give to the poor. And he goes, No, not that I like the perks. And he wasn't able to find out God's plan for his life, looking back will lead to going back to living in a manner that will not provide the protection and provision that God has. What we saw from Lot's wife was a lack of faith. She didn't believe that God could provide and protect her. So she looked back and she turned into a pillar of salt. She was destroyed. She was destroyed. She failed to separate herself from the thinking that was cultural and believe in the power of the kingdom. She try to have one foot in the culture and one foot in the kingdom. And you can't live like that. You cannot have one foot in one and one foot and the other. And we see that when we do that, even as parents, when we do that, we see the effects. Because when you read on and you read about lots daughters. After they lost their mother, they performed despicable acts, and they were part of fostering two groups that would grow to persecute God's people. So there is generational problems. If we are not living for the kingdom, if we try to live for both, we cannot do it. I mean, despite God's warning, despite God's escort, we see that lot hesitated and his wife looked back as we come up on this Christmas season, we have the warning that Jesus is coming and there should be joy, there should be peace. But if we keep looking back, we're going to go back to the mentality I want to read to you here. It says in Luke 17. This is Jesus talking the most, just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark, then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot, people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but the day lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. We celebrate the birth of Jesus for hope, but also know that Christ coming in is the beginning of God's judgment that will eventually come when Christ comes back. And so we cannot look back. Look, there's no looking back. We're in the Christmas season. It. We're in it now. We can't go back satchel. Paige says, Don't look back. Something may be gaining on you, and sometimes those things that we look at the rear view mirror, maybe they're perched, maybe they're problems, maybe they're pressure. But if we keep looking in the rear view mirror and we don't look out the windshield, we miss the glory of God that comes in the manger, the glory of God for Jesus dying on the cross for you and me. So as we get ready to jump full steam here, first Sunday of Advent, roll on to Christmas. Don't look back. Look forward to the glory of God that is to come. Amen, as the worship team is back up. Will you pray with me? Please, Father God, we confess. I confess. Lord that that we can look back. We can get caught up in our past, our past problems, our past worries. We can live in that rear view mirror, which is so small, Lord, that we miss the windshield of hope that you're bringing through the birth of Jesus. I pray Lord, that as we put Thanksgiving and everything else in the rear view mirror, Lord, it's time to look forward to Christmas, the hope and the joy and the peace and the celebration of Jesus. Lord, I pray that anyone here, Lord, who's carrying around, who's looking in that rear view mirror? Maybe it's a rear view mirror. Lord, filled with pain and suffering and anxiety. Lord, I pray that they would leave it in the past and look forward, Lord, to the great plan you have for their life, the glory, the hope of Jesus being born, the one who would die for our sins, the one who gives us hope and a hopeless world joy in a joyless life, Father, we thank You for Your Word, which is a lamp into our feet. Lord, I pray that we would not just be hearers of this word today, but we'd be doers. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for joining us for more information about three timbers, church ministries and services. Visit three timbers.org. We would love for you to join us in person. Do.