Sermons

As we celebrate 15 years of the Gateway Church – there are some who have been on the journey of over 15yrs and others just a few weeks or months. It's a time when we can look back at what God has done – the salvations, new disciples, the people sent through the gate. And a time to look forward to the next 15 years of adventure together.

So today's message is about looking. Looking back, looking up, looking forwards and looking outward.

Need to do it more often – history

Looking back is a mixed bag in the Bible

Scriptures that discourage it and Scriptures that encourage it!

Because there is a right way and a wrong way

Noel Gallagher would say “Don’t look back in anger” – how many know that’s a song title not a Bible verse?!!!

A bad way to look back is thinking everything was better in the past compared to now. Actually it was just different. As people get older we look back remembering the best bits, forgetting the bad and whingeing about today.

Early in Israel’s history they had got stuck in slavery in Egypt for centuries. Eventually they cried out to God, who sent Moses to deliver them. After they got out, some began to look back when it got tough and started whingeing about “the good old days”

Numbers 11:5 “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onion and garlic” Forgetting they were slaves making bricks for the pyramids with less straw than before.

Looking back at the good old days and grumbling makes God cross!

I get disconcerted when a driver keeps turning round to talk to the passengers – you need to be looking forward!

In Luke 9:62, Jesus said, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.'

People wanted to delay following Jesus to attend to other things first – Jesus tells them you need to be looking forward.

When someone is ploughing a field you need to be looking forward to keep in a straight line.

I’ve taken up river swimming – I like it. But head down doing the crawl I keep zig-zagging – I need to look forward every few breaths to keep straight.

The last bad way to look back is at the old life you had – the temptations, the attitudes even the stuff. As Lot and his wife were fleeing Sodom before its’ destruction, the angel told them “Don’t look back.” But sh did and became a pillar of salt. Some would say its’ natural curiosity to look back at what is going on as you flee. It’s not that.

Jesus mentions it in Luke 17v32-33 “Remember Lot's wife! ³³ Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.”

Looking back at the old life and missing it. She was looking back rather than hurrying on to where God was calling her.

Isa 43 tells usForget the former things; do not dwell on the past

Wesley comments Probably she hankered after her house and goods in Sodom, and was loath to leave them. Christ intimates this to be her sin, she too much regarded her stuff. And her looking back spoke an inclination to go back; and therefore our Saviour uses it as a warning against apostasy from our Christian profession.

Looking back at failures, regrets, missed opportunities discourages us. Paul tells us to forget the former things Phil 3:12.

If you look with much regret, remember the new things of God for you are never too late.

Jesus told a parable of some labourers who did not work for 11 hours out of 12 in a working day. At the 11th hour a man called them and asked them to work in his vineyard. They went and worked for just one hour. But Jesus said that they got their wages first of all! Those who worked for 12 hours got their reward last! I hope that encourages you.

There’s a movie called Safety not guaranteed about some reporters who goto check out a classified ad

Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.

There is a particularly moving scene in the film when a character named Darius (played by Aubrey Plaza) explains to the supposed time machine owner why she wants to go back in time. To paraphrase the film's dialogue, she describes how she was just a bratty fourteen year old when her mother called one night saying she was on her way home and could she pick something up for her. “Yeah,” she blurted out, “some chocolate milk.” Her mother turned into an all night market, picked up the milk and called her again saying she had the milk and was excited to see her. “Whatever,” was her cold reply.

That was the last time she ever saw her mother. She was abducted leaving the store and murdered.

To paraphrase the scene, she said to the man with the Time Machine: “You see, I have to go back. I have to fix this. I need to tell mom, “Don't stop! Come straight home, mom. I just need to be with you. Just come home!” “You see,” she said to the man with the Time Machine, “I just have to fix this!”

Maybe we all want a time machine to go back and fix something. To right a wrong we did, or speak up when we didn't. We all have something back there we want to go back and fix. We need to go back and talk some sense into ourselves, and not do the deed, or say the word, or to do what should have been done. We all want to go back and fix something . . . but we

can't.

We can’t have a time machine – but we can have a time redeem. God is able to reach into your past and find that painful memory that just won't let you go, and redeem it! Just as God forgave Israel for the nation's bad behaviour, and gave them a new name and new hope, so God can forgive whatever might be in your past that haunts you at night, that is the source of your mental bruising, and has you wrapped up in chains of shame.

Don’t keep looking back with regret – find God’s grace today and look forward!

Looking back is bad when we are grumbling about the good old days, when we need to be looking forward, when it is hankering after the old life, and when it is filled with crippling regrets.

But there is a right way to look back – and that is with thankfulness at what the Lord has done!

1 Chronicles 16:12 Remember the wonders he has done, is miracles and the judgments he pronounced!

As we reach 15years of the Gateway – look back at what the Lord has done and be thankful!

2006 Tony Thompson – Kaleidoscope plant different colours called together to produce splendour

2010 Markus Adolfsson – There will many colours in this place. People from many nations. Saying “Praise the Lord” in many languages. You may be thinking there aren't many colours in King's Lynn. God will carve them out of rock and build something beautiful in this place.

Looking back with thankfulness instead of the wrong way is a choice!

Lift up your eyes to Jesus. Psalm 105:4 Look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face always.

Not always looking to what you want Him to do or what he does, but Him. Seek Him, look to Him.

I remember going to a conference where the worship songs were all about the cloud, and the glory – it took five songs to mention Jesus. I was shocked!

It’s easy for us to slip into look at what he does and not at Him.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will go strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

There’s a wrong way to look forwards. Looking forward to your own dreams and hopes – retiring with a big boat, earning enough for a bigger house, whatever when it is not God’s will but yours.

James 4:!3-16 Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

Look forward to God’s promises over you and over the church being fulfilled – get in that river and go with the flow.

As David preached last week – faith is often patient endurance. Keep going in God!

That's not natural for most of us – it's easier and more comfortable to look inward. Most of us need to be reminded constantly – invite a friend or neighbour or a co-worker to the food evening, Alpha or a carol service. It's just not on our radar. But it is part of our identity.

Listen to 2 Cor 5:17-20

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] the old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God

Two things stand out from those verses – we are ambassadors. Back in the day ambassadors were sent with the full weight and authority of their country to represent the country. Before instant communication, ambassadors were fully trusted (actually probably still are!) to represent their head of state.

You are an ambassador – you have the authority and weight of Jesus to represent Him wherever you are! What are a calling.

And then because we have been reconciled we have been given a ministry of reconciliation.

That's the ministry you have to help people be reconciled to God. So the challenge of this passage is that you live like an ambassador – not with Ferrero Rocher chocolates, but the ministry of reconciliation.

Think how can I represent my true country – heaven at work, at school, in college, in the shops, walking the dog, buying milk whatever and wherever. Be an ambassador!