The Pastor's Corner
The Pastor's Corner
Fix Your Focus (Looking Ahead Instead Of Behind)
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Hello, welcome to the Pastor's Commodore Plus Del Blas Church. Brother Jesse Allen is here in the studio. L Rick A Hunter. Brother Bryson, the Whalenmeister, and Chris, Mr. Fabulous Catledge. Children love him, parents adoring him, termites fearing. Hell yeah, for the secondary. Yeah, Jugger comes in this morning bringing breakfast for the secretary. Making this look bad. I like I like biscuits. Oh me. So thank you for tuning in this morning. And uh we all got our scripture laid out here. Chris did not bring a chopperkeeper this morning. He got one page of notes, so I think we're gonna get out of here on time. And uh I know some of y'all think we we own him a lot, but we love this guy. He's he's a lot of fun. And today's topic is not looking back. You know, uh Lot's wife looked back, and we all know how that turned out. So a lot of times I think churches and even individuals and uh believers are guilty of so much looking back that they can't look ahead. And when Jesus saves us, our past is forgiven. Not that it's not relevant because it's it's who made us where we're at. And we use that as an example and a witness in our testimony for Christ. But how many times do we spend our life and allow things in our rear view mirror to drag us down? If you drive down the road staring in the rearview mirror all the time, and they're gonna be long, you're gonna find yourself in a ditch or a head-on collision. So we have to keep looking forward this morning. And so that's just kind of some opening comments today. I know a lot of Christians in this ministry as well as others, and a lot of them's testimony is, well, Pastor, I just I just can't get past some things I've done or some things I said. And what they're doing is letting that sin that besets us, as Paul talked about, kind of derail them from the future. And you can't erase the past. You have to always remember that. You can't erase the past. That's what makes forgiveness so important. Because you can't turn back time. If I could turn back and undo it, I would. But forgiveness is so powerful because we can't turn back time. So all we can do is forgive and move on. So uh that's kind of gonna be the direction we're going this morning, and I'll turn it over to these guys for some opening comments, then we'll dive into some scripture and then uh just kind of unpack this whole entire thing. And so maybe you're struggling with that today. Maybe you know someone who is, maybe you want to put them on the podcast. But always being reminded that we can't change what's behind us, but man, we can aim forward, look forward, grateful for the plans that God's got for us in our life, and walk that path, not a path not looking to the left or to the right, but looking straight ahead.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think just real short comments opening this morning. Um you can look back to the past and learn from it, but you can't change it. And if you don't change it, you're prone to repeat it. So that's just kind of my opening comments.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think, and I and I say this all the time, and just kind of learning it as as I've uh kind of growing up in my faith, that you know, the past has happened, and Jesus obviously has been in the past. He's the the past is uh is is is indeed in the past. Jesus, you know, he is already in the future, but I think it's I think it's important to understand that the past is in the past, the future's in the future, but Jesus he rus he resides in the present. He resides in the present moment. And so I think that might be an interesting, uh, a little bit of a different angle to take it from uh this morning as we kind of get this podcast started. But I I think it's just important to understand because a lot of times the Christians live their lives so much in the past and even so much in the future that we miss where God is and God is in the present.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Well, I kind of went with you know with Pastor Jesse I talked about said looking ahead, we must stay focused on where we're going. But I just was was thinking of of things that would cause us to lose focus. And and uh one would be fear, two, we'd lose we'd lose heart, three, we're busy, and four, we we we're weary. So that's kind of the air the direction I'm heading this morning.
SPEAKER_04All right, the text I'm gonna begin to uh this morning in Luke chapter nine. Uh Jesus is having a conversation, and in verse number 57 of Luke 9, it says this It came to pass as they went in the way a certain man said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. So he's made a commitment in verse 57 that I'm gonna be one of those guys that's gonna follow you. I'm gonna learn from you, I'm gonna mimic you, I wanna be a walking image of you, I want to be an example of you. But in verse 58, but Jesus said to him, and this is what kind of, you know, Jesus never would just lash out at someone. He would always either give them a parable or make a statement that will make them think. And in verse 58, Jesus said, Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. So what he's saying is, if you're following me for personal gain, you're in this for the wrong reason. If you follow me thinking that you're gonna get some kind of luxurious life out of this, you're in this for the wrong reason. If you follow me thinking that there's gonna be some kind of major benefit that's gonna glorify you here and now, make you look like some kind of shining, you know, light to the world and fame and fortune, that's not that's not that's not realistic. And in verse 59, he gives and he goes on to explain it. He said unto another, and Jesus said to another man, follow me. But he said, Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father. And Jesus said, Let the dead bury the dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. Another man said, Lord, I'll follow you, but first let me go and bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. The point is this, they were saying, Lord, I'll follow you, but. Lord, I'll follow you, but. Lord, I'll follow you, but I got something else to take care of first. And so Jesus said, Listen, if you're gonna follow me, then that means we're gonna start here and move forward. We're not worried about what's going on at home. We're not worried about what you gotta go do. We ain't worried about going to buy land, we ain't worried about going to try and, you know, Jesus had a conversation with one one time before and said, I bought some cattle and got to go look at it. Well, what not but go buy a cattle and not looking at it? So all of these are excuses, but they're not legitimate. And so Jesus said in verse number 62, no man having put his hand to the plow. Now, when you put your hand to the plow, think about it. If you put your hand to the plow in that day in time, you wasn't driving no 940 match version. Putting your hand to the plow in that day in time, you'll find a mule or a horse. You didn't look backwards because if you look backwards, guess what's gonna happen? You're gonna put the road's gonna be crooked. You look forward because that's where you're going. And Jesus said, you can't put your hand to the plow looking backwards because you're gonna destroy everything else you've done. You gotta put your hand to the plow and look forward all the time. Don't worry about what's going on at home. Don't worry about having to go finish this, don't worry about having to get this done or that done or this. If you're gonna come follow me, I want you to start right here and I want you to look forward from this day forward. Yeah and I and don't get me wrong, you know, I got saved when I was 28 years old. I had 28 years of ignorance, stupidity, shame, guilt. I had a lot of things in my 28 years before I met the Lord that I was ashamed of. But I understood in that moment that the Lord had forgiven me for all that. Now, were there some things along the path of my life that I made right with some people? Yeah. But when I got saved, I didn't live in the past because the past was the was the one thing I wanted to get rid of.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04The past is what I needed forgiveness for. The past is what I needed to repent for. So I couldn't spend all my time looking backwards. And the day I got saved, when, and I gotta be honest with you, one of the greatest things of being forgiven is that all that weight and guilt can be taken off your shoulders. And Jesus said, Cast it on me. And a lot of people want to cast it on Jesus and then five minutes later take it back and keep looking backwards, saying, How do I fix this? Here's the reality of it. If you could fix it, you would have already fixed it. You can't fix it. So being forgiven is what makes it such a glorious event that the Lord will take all of that and just pretty much like turning one of Chris's 14 pages over there. That's crazy. And saying, you know what? We got it. Today's a new day. Today's a new slate. Today's a new page. We've turned the page and now we're looking forward. And so, Saint, if you're listening today, we've all got things, even from the time we got saved to now, there's still things we've done and said that we wish we wouldn't have. But man, we can't live in that past. We asked for forgiveness, we lay it at the Lord's feet, and let's put it this way. The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. That's a statement that nobody can explain. But if you're going to try and explain it, the first thing you got to figure out is, okay, what's God's heart? If he was a man after God's own heart, then what is God's heart? Well, think about it. If the Bible said David's a man to God's own heart, then that means something in his life was a picture of God's heart. The only thing I can figure, and if I'm wrong, y'all tell me, the only thing I can figure that made David a man to God's own heart was this. God's heart is for man to repent of his sins, to get back on his feet, and keep moving forward. David was not perfect by no means. We're talking about lying, we're talking about adultery, we're talking about murder, we're talking about numbering the people. I mean, the list goes on and on. But every time he was confronted with his sin, you know what he did? He repented of it, he got back on his feet, and he kept moving forward. Now, please understand, forgiveness does not erase consequences. Nope. We can read the book of Psalms and see all the tears that he shed. But I think God's heart is for a man to repent, get back on his feet, and keep moving forward. That's all David's life is a picture of. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Moving forward. Moving forward. Yep. All right, I'm gonna give the invitation. We done here. Usher's come down. Oh, we're gonna take the offering. Yeah, we forgot the offering. Yeah, I was gonna bring it out, just talking about that because we talk about the past. Everybody has a past. Everybody has a past. But Philippians tells us, uh, building on that, about not looking back. Philippians 3, 12, uh, we'll just do uh 13 and 14. Paul said, and now Paul had a past. And Paul had a past. Not many people compare to Paul's past. He murdered Christians. Wow. So he really had a past he he had to deal with. And he said, Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended or taken a hold of, but one thing I do, I forget the past. He said, I forget it. I forget those things which are behind, and I reach forward to those things which are ahead. I press towards a goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And so that's uh Paul tells us what to do with our past. We learn from it and we put it behind us because we can't we can't go forward looking backwards. I run track in in high school, and the coach always said, Don't worry about the people behind you. Because when you look back, you start to stumble or you get offline or something like that. You just put it all in there and run forward. Don't you don't worry about who's behind you. And so in the in our life, Paul had a past, terrible past. But he said, I deal with this by not looking back. I look forward because we can't go back, we can't do anything about it. Yeah, I made mistakes, yeah, I messed up, yeah, I've got a bunch of uh trash back there. But I can't go live in reverse, therefore I just forget it. What's done is done. Yeah, I did it, I admitted it, I've been given for it. I've got the future ahead. Because we can only live one way, and that's in the future, because we cannot relive the past. And Paul says, forget those things. The only way that that we can forget the past is understand that we've been forgiven when we repent of it. Because if God can forget it and wipe it clean, then we have no use going back and dwelling on it and thinking on it because all it'll do is become a stumbling block for us going forward. So Paul dealt with his past by forgetting about it. So no matter what you got back there in the past, what kind of failure, what kind of mistakes, or anything else, you've got this day and the rest of your life to make a difference. And you can't go back and undo the past. But really, somehow, some way, God uses our our mess to make us better in the future. Because God never wastes even our mistakes. And I even believe because of Paul, because of David and all his great men in the Bible we read about, they were so great because they had that past. And God used that past to change direction into the future and make them even more devoted to not repeat the past. So just forget the past and strive forward for the future, because you may have decades of life that uh you're not gonna make up for the past, but the decade the the days ahead is all you got to work with and make the most of them.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Yeah, I think there's a difference between living in the past and then God using your past. Does that make sense? Oh yeah. Like I think there's a difference between, you know, being caught up in your past and letting your past control you, and then, you know, you using your past to then, you know, uh shape who you are, and letting that uh be something that actually is a part of your testimony of for who you are in the present and even into the future. And some scripture that me and me and Rick actually had the same scripture uh when we came up here this morning to the podcast, but another scripture that comes to mind, kind of just kind of kind of kind of go goes right along with this, is Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. And I'll even read verse 3, verse 2 and 3 says, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, for who the joy for who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And then verse 3 says, Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. I think that's gonna kind of play right into what Chris is gonna talk about a little bit. But I think oftentimes the reason why we go back to the past, the reason why we live in the past and get so caught up in our past and what we used to do, who we used to be, is ultimately it wouldn't well, I mean, we can we can go on and on, but ultimately what it boils down to is that we lose sight of Jesus. We take our eyes off the main thing, and we we and what we need to get back to who if you're listening to the podcast today, is you need to fix your focus. I think that would be the word, that'd be the encouragement to you, is to fix your focus back on Jesus, to get back aligned with Jesus, the author, the perfecter of your faith, to remember him, to remember who he is, to remember what he's done for you. If you have a relationship with him, to fix your eyes back on him, because he is the prize, he is the goal, he he he is what you need to set your eyes on. Because the reality is this when your eyes are on Jesus, you are where you need to be. When your eyes are on Jesus, you are on the path that you need to be on. You are in line where you need, I mean, you are exactly where you need to be at when your eyes are fixed on him. Not when your eyes are are are you know kind of looking at him, not when you're like like kind of off and on at him, but when you're fit, like when your eyes are fixed on something, that means you are locked in, right? And if you're that's what verse two says, fix your eyes. So if I if I'm fixing my eyes on something in this room, it means I'm locked in on that thing. And so if we fix our eyes on Jesus, I think like that well, you you can't fix your eyes on the past and fix your eyes on Jesus. That's right. At the same time. So fixing your eyes on Jesus is so, so important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think like what Pastor Rick was talking about. He's talking about uh not going in reverse. I heard this guy say one time, he said uh he was he was a drag uh a drag car racer, and he said uh rip out reverse and tear off the rear view mirror as far as the so you only can look for. But the uh but uh the scripture I have this morning is uh Numbers 14, 13. And this is just the first thing that came up to my mind whenever uh Pastor Jesse had mentioned this. He says, And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land and to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey, were it not better for us to return into Egypt? This is talk about the Israelites. You know, God had already promised them Canaan land. And so, you know, back in chapter 13 it talked about God had told him to send out one uh one person from each tribe to go uh scout out uh Canaan land. And out of fear, well once the scouts came back and told them that they were going to uh that the land was just like God had promised, as far as filled with milk and honey and that and and uh brought back fruit to things were great. Uh you know, that was the report from two two of the twelve that went out. The rest of them was talking about more about the the problems we were gonna face if we went that way. And they were talking about the the the different people who inhabited the land already. So it just got me as far as that that that that out of fear when they were back. They started thinking about how things were back in Egypt, that things were better. Some of them were thinking that that things were better back in that time, so they took their eyes off going to Florida, the land that God had promised them to to go back pretty much into slavery and to the point that God had just you know got fed up with it. So I think we we we fear going forward, we don't want to focus on what's ahead because we're worried too much about uh stomach blocks is gonna be in our way. And I'm gonna try not to catch myself moving my hands so I have to sit on that. Well I said, uh I I had to say and I tell people I said, where faith is weak, fear is strong. And I think their faith is far later, they've kind of lost sight of what what God has promised them, and their fear of what was gonna come ahead if they tried to go into Canaan land to keep them from moving forward.
SPEAKER_04That's it. You kind of come to an abrupt stop there. Um and all of that is is perfectly true and can and can be used in so many illustrations, examples, and applications. But um, to go back to what Bryson said a while ago, uh, I think what something he said was probably one of the most important. Wherever your attention is, whatever your eyes are fastened on, that's where you're gonna be. If your eyes are fastened on the Lord, then the past is kind of a faint memory. But if your eyes are on the past, then Jesus is kind of a faint memory. So wherever your focus was, uh, whatever your focus is, and let's be honest about it, it's like everything else. You know, whatever your focus is today, that's where your that's where your energy is gonna be focused. If you focused on, I gotta be somewhere at a certain time, you're gonna be done by then. If you focused on, you know, I gotta do this tomorrow, that's where all your energy is gonna be. So I think it's a lot about keeping our eyes on him and at the same time being reminded that we're called to something greater than us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I think a lot of times people get so caught up in the in the past because they sit in church and do nothing. When you're actively involved in helping move the kingdom for forward, then you ain't got time to be looking backwards because it's always something coming up you gotta be ready for. Either Wednesday night with the kids or Wednesday night with the youth or Sunday morning Sunday school class or small group Monday morning or small group Tuesday morning or small group um the whatever night you meet with yours. So I think, you know, when you're actively involved in the kingdom moving forward, then you're focused on something that you're a part of. And that's why I think a lot of folks maybe listen onto the podcast, uh, if you're not actively involved in in a in a part of your ministry or church or wherever you attend, I think a lot of that can be the problem too. Because the people that I see involved in the kingdom moving forward, those are the people that you can see God doing something in their life.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's like you said in the past, too, the one that complained the most do the least.
SPEAKER_04True. Yeah. They're I'm trying to find the word for it. Discouraged, I guess would be I guess discouraged would be a good word.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and thinking about uh what you were saying there, um I heard a statement several weeks ago that really got me looking at things differently. And uh this person told me, he said, no matter what you do or don't do, a period of years are gonna pass. And so it it consisted of three years at that point, that conversation. And they said, whether you do this or not, three years are gonna pass. So you can either do what needs to be done today so that three years from now you're where you want to be. Because if you do nothing, you're gonna get to three years down the road and done nothing. You're gonna be the same place you were three years ago.
SPEAKER_04True.
SPEAKER_03And so the only way to keep going forward, you gotta uh going back to forgetting the past, but you gotta do today where you want to be into the future. So you gotta take steps today. And uh bringing out what Chris brought out, uh the problem with the Israelites and uh going forward was fear from the past. So they allowed that fear in the past to shut down their hope for the future. And so that fear sat in front of them. But if they would have just by faith, forgot the past, and realized that God has something better for them and went forward, they wouldn't have wanted in the wilderness for 40 years and all of them died and didn't get to experience the promised land. So there's a lot of things if we're not careful in our past, mistakes, failures, pain, hurt, anger, uh, fail um fear, whatever that is, if we don't trust God by faith to help us to overcome it, that will always be a stumbling block for us going forward because it's something from our past is getting in the way of our future.
SPEAKER_00Man, this this is a conversation we can we could keep, I mean, I feel like we could we could go so many different angles, so many different ways with it. But it but it's so true, and I just keep going back just to just keeping our eyes on Jesus. And that's just the thing that's just keeping sticking, it's just sticking with me as as we're going throughout this conversation. It's just something that I can't get off my mind. Um and and you know, I've told this story before. I I I know I shared it at Staff Retreat a couple years ago, but may maybe it'll be helpful. I I don't know, maybe maybe it'll be helpful for for somebody here. So if y'all don't mind, I'll share it real quick. But um I played played baseball growing up. Um had a chance to be on some pretty good teams at high school, even. And I remember the the the year, so miss my senior year of high school, um, my junior year of high school, we had played for the state championship in baseball, but we we lost in the state championship game. And going into my senior year, you know, we're in the it's summertime, so we're lifting weights together as a team. And long story short, we're it we're in the weight room uh and and we're we're into our summer conditioning, and we're and we're doing that training. And our coach comes in and he starts to put this thing on the wall. And we're like, we're uh we're at we're as a team in there, and we're wondering, what in the world is he taping to the wall? Um we've never seen him do that. There's nothing on the wall. Um but what he was doing was he was going around and taping a picture of the state championship trophy to the wall. And and the reason why he ended up doing this was simply because as we were lifting weights, he wanted us to, he wanted us as the team to see what we were working towards. So in other words, he wanted us to keep our eyes on the prize so that as we are working out, as we are lifting weights, to for us to know, hey, like, like we're not doing this for any for for no reason. We're not in here just to be in here. We are doing this to to achieve this prize. So he wanted us to keep our eyes on and keep the main thing the main thing. And and ultimately, that is something that that that I mean, I wish I could say it helped us achieve the goal because but we ended up losing the state championship again. Um so not a not a good, you know, not probably not the best example to to use here on the podcast this morning. But um the the point is this w you gotta have you gotta have something where you you gotta keep to help you keep your eyes on Jesus. And a lot of times there's these practical things in your faith that that it you gotta learn, and it and it's it all oftentimes it's different for each individual, but there's these practical things where you can where you can start to do, start to implement in your life to help you keep your eyes on the prize, and the ultimate prize, the ultimate goal, as we've been talking about, is Jesus Christ. Hopefully that helps somebody because it helped me.
SPEAKER_04Well, and and in that situation, the past drove you for the future.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04You didn't focus on it. That's right. That's just kind of a reminder, if you will. Yeah. And and I'm gonna um kind of start the closing comments in Hebrews 12. I know Bryson, you read I just a while ago, verse 2, correct? Yes. That's right. And verse, I want to go back to verse number one. He says, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. All right, and and we know we know that all the saints gone before us. But then he says something else that sounds almost out of place. Let us lay aside every weight and every sin that so easily besets us. That is the things of our past. Yep. The things that crippled us to start with. And he said, in order to run the race, you gotta get rid of that stuff. You gotta make sure you stay focused ahead. Don't allow it to be an obstacle or speed bump in your life. You know, put that stuff behind you that you can run free. And it's hard to run a race when you change to your past.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_04And to kind of bank off of your story about sports, back when I was racing, that's one thing I did not have was a rear view mirror. Because the guy, the guy I drove for always told me the man behind us can't hurt us. And the other thing is if you look in that rear view mirror, son, that concrete wall is coming. Yep. You always want to know what lays ahead because the Lord may tell you we gotta change directions. And a lot of times in ministry, I think a lot of guys are so bound by the history and traditions that God wants to change something and they can't because they're looking backwards. We're gonna talk about that Sunday morning, by the way. Yep.
SPEAKER_01I think that kind of goes to a church as a as a whole, too. Is that uh when a church is trying to grow a small church, you got the a lot of times you got the elders in the church that's looking back on how we've done things that they can't focus on the stuff that's coming forward.
SPEAKER_04Oh, you know what the Madeline now is. I'm just scared. Go ahead. I'm just scared.
SPEAKER_01We get so hung up on the past that we don't we we don't we don't see what God's trying to lead us to.
SPEAKER_04I totally agree. I totally agree. I totally agree. And breaking free from that sometimes is the hardest thing to do.
SPEAKER_03And the older I get, I'm beginning to do some of that myself. Oh, Rick. Yeah, you're a runner, man. You you every day you got a new path. Yeah, but the older you get, you tend that you tend to hold on to some of the things of the past, and then when things start changing, you fall into that club.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but the things changing to you, like torn Achilles and hurting foot and torn-up knees. Yeah. Bryce, you got any closing comments? Everything's negative on this entertainment.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, I just I just think as you know, obviously we're coming up on homecoming uh this week just as a ministry. I know we've well, I mean, I don't know. We don't we don't know who's listening and where this podcast reaches. That's what's the beautiful part about what we get to do. And you've got to, you know, we remind ourselves of that each week when we come in here to do the podcast that we don't know who's listening and where this reaches, and we're grateful for whoever listens, uh, whoever this podcast reaches, um, really around the around the world. We don't we don't know who who is uh listening today to it, but we're coming up as celebrating homecoming uh Sunday this this week at our church, and just I mean, we're just looking back on the past, and and I think, you know, we're talking about the past in a negative way today, but you know, I think it's important to appreciate the past, you know, to to appreciate where you know what God has done, to appreciate where you've come from, to appreciate all the good times and the memories, um, but to understand and to and to realize that with with the Lord the best is always yet to come. That's right. Um that the Lord has something, and like that the best days are ahead of you. Um and and I think it's so important for everybody to believe that, to be on board with that. Um and and I think if if you are on board with that, that that our best days are ahead of us with with the Lord, and and if our eyes are fixed and set on Jesus, then that makes like changes in the days ahead, or like doing things in an unordinary, uncommon way that are different than the past or different than what we've always done. It makes it easier to do it in that way when you realize, okay, I'm on board with Jesus. And so if Jesus is the one like leading us and guiding us, then he knows best, anyways. And so it's appreciating the past being grateful for what he's done because like just just just talking about like our church and our ministry specifically, you know, I've only been here for a short amount of time if we're talking about you know the history of our church, but uh, you know, the Lord's done some really cool things the past couple years. Um we've seen God save people, you know, people cross over from death to life, and um just just just a lot of really cool stories that we could even share on air and talk about. But I believe, you know, the best is just right at right around the right around the horizon. The best is just yet ahead. We have we're I I believe we really haven't even seen what God is is going to do, uh, but cover up. Amen.
SPEAKER_04And I just want to kind of reiterate something because I think you said something that's really powerful. Um I think one thing that people's gotta do is not focus on the negative. And the reason I say that, and all y'all know this would be true, man, if all you do is look around at society and the news, you're gonna be depressed. Sometimes you got to divorce yourself from all that stuff and remove yourself to hear the voice of God. Because with social media and everything at our fingertips nowadays, we're bombarded by so much junk and negative stuff. If we're not careful, we can get down trodden by all that and forget that God is still in charge. So a lot of times it may not even be your past, it may be the present.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So make sure you keep your eyes on the Lord because you know, everything in this world's passing away. Don't get me wrong, we're called to be salt and light in this world. We understand we have great opportunities and people to reach here, but at the end of the day, we have to keep our eyes fixed upon the Lord because everything in this world will soon come to pass. Any closing comments quickly?
SPEAKER_01Well, I I I just got a couple things. Uh, and because this is something I deal with myself personally, that I'm dealing with right now that I'm having to work with. And uh ever since the Lord's called me into full-time ministry, you know, I've I'm always busy, I'm always doing something. But but uh I I just gotta say some of us are so busy that it's hard to stay focused. We start missing church, reading our Bible, which I'm not doing that, which weeks of scripture we lose sight of our gold.
SPEAKER_04I think say, well, we need to start right here in the house.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I I I got I got a bed in my office and you follow the pathway, that's where it leads to. But but with me, I've had to reprioritize reprioritize my life and my schedule because we're so busy today, and every and that's everybody. We're so busy with sports, we're so busy with everything, we lose focus on church, and we lose focus on reading our Bible, and we lose focus on God, and it's hard to look forward and build on something when you're leaving out the road the roadmap on where you're going. So, but I would the other thing I wanted to mention, because I have been around here for a while, is is having them goals and having them plans. It's like a house, you're building a house, you got plans. I just think back years ago when we worshiped in the UPU chapel right here in our leadership where we they they had put forth plans on things where they wanted us, they felt the Lord was leading this church. I still don't remember all the blueprints. Y'all probably still got them around here somewhere on work and and the Lord has brought and I it just amazes me, and I'm so thankful to be a to have been here and been a part of it to see how God has blessed out the church. And this has been on my heart this week. Just think about coming up at homecoming and looking at all these pictures out here from uh just uh a lot of these people's gone before us now, they're not here anymore. And uh so in a sense, we're you know, we're living part of their legacy and what they've established. But but uh you know, if you if you don't have a church this week, I know this is homecoming, we're celebrating the past, but we'd love to have you come visit us with us this weekend, uh this Sunday, uh just to see what's what's going on and what God can do for you.
SPEAKER_04Alright, and uh anyone y'all got something to say in clothes? Good?
SPEAKER_00Y'all good? I'm good, yeah.
SPEAKER_04But you good? Yeah. You a little sniffly over there, are you good?
SPEAKER_00A little sniffly, but keep my eyes on the on the Lord. Keep my eyes on the Lord.
SPEAKER_04Amen. Yeah, that's uh Chris mentioned uh a long-range plan from years ago. Sometimes uh having a and and don't get me wrong, nothing's written in stone. The Lord can change anything. But having a pathway, uh, a lot of times can really keep you focused and keep your direction in the way it needs to be. So thank you guys for listening. Uh as we said, you know, it could be the past, it could be the present. We don't know. That may have you chained down and you just can't break free from that. And you at some point in time, you're gonna have to give it to the Lord and move on. That's right. It's 1982. The school was man, I tell you what. Listen, I've come to the conclusion that we could we can solve America's problems with three things. Y'all ready for this? Ready. Y'all ready? Number one, we got to do away with cell phones. That's destroyed this country. I'll vote for that one. Number two, we gotta do away with seatbelts. Back in the 70s and 80s, when America was great, nobody wore seatbelts. Yeah. And number three, we got to get back to teenagers driving school buses. All right. When we had teenagers driving school buses, no seat belts, and no cell phones, America was a great place. Look what it produced. Look what it produced. Now we got adults driving school buses. Everybody wearing seatbelts. Everybody got a phone and the country's falling apart. Now, prove me wrong. It's 1992. A 16-year-old kid is driving a bus, dri uh driving a school bus. Uh, his mama daddy raised him to be responsible, which you don't do anymore. That's problem number one. His mama and daddy raised him to be responsible. The principal took him to the DMV, got his license because they had a bus route with no driver in it. They stuck a 16 year old kid in there and said, Hey man, take these kids home. Here's your map. This is everywhere you need to stop. That's all he needed. He didn't need a GPS or a Tom Tom or none of the other maps we had to use in pass. So why would he not want to look back? Because he did not want to see what was going on in the school boys.
