Don’t Look Back
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. – Luke 9:62
Text: Genesis 19:26; Luke 17:32,33
Summary: Once we start to follow Jesus we must never look back. We must give up our old way of life to find new life in Christ.
I need two volunteers to help me. (Enlist two children.) We are going to play “Follow the leader.” One of you will be the leader and the other one will be the follower. (Appoint each one. Say to the follower, “Wherever he leads, I want you to follow him.”) Lead on, leader!
(After a short distance, stop them. Give new directions to the follower. Tell him, “Keep following him, but now I want you to look back behind you the whole time.”) Lead on, leader! (This should be interesting, if not comical, to watch.) What happened? It is hard to follow someone if you take your eyes off the leader. Thank you for helping to demonstrate our lesson for today.
Don’t Look Back!
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, two angels brought Lot and his family out of Sodom and warned them, Escape for your life; look not behind thee. (Genesis 19:17) God destroyed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with great balls of fire from heaven. (Read Genesis 19:26) Lot’s (unnamed) wife desired to go back to her old life in Sodom. She “looked back” and was caught in the destruction.
Jesus warned his followers that when he returned to earth he would be coming suddenly and they should be ready. We are his followers now so we should be ready too. We should not desire our old sinful (bad) life once we ask Jesus to be our Savior. Don’t look back!
(Read Luke 17:32,33) If we remember Lot’s wife we won’t look back! That is our warning. We can follow Jesus if we keep our eyes on Him. If we are going to follow Jesus as our leader we must be willing to lose our old way of life to find a better life in Christ. If we look back we will lose our way and be lost. Let’s rededicate our lives to Jesus today and follow our leader, Jesus!
©2001 by Jim Kerlin. All rights reserved.
This article was written by Jim