Look away! I can’t stand to watch! This week we continued our sermon series Walk This Way. Last week in Follow This Map we talked about two different paths we could take. One leading to destruction and another heading to our heavenly home. This week we take a walk down memory lane, but you might want to look away. Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I don’t think we like to dwell on the horror that is the Old Testament accounts of sin and God’s judgment. It can be helpful to look at the temptations that Old Testament Christians faced and how they fell. We can learn from their mistakes so that we won’t fall in the same way. That may not mean that we’ll be sin free, but it can help us resist and go into situations with eye wide open to the dangers of certain temptations in our lives.
That’s only half the battle, isn’t it? Take your the garbage your house produces as an example. Even if we can limit the amount of trash that our families produce, we’ll still be producing some trash. No amount of recycling, reducing, and reusing can stop the never ending flow of trash that comes out of our house. In the same way no amount to study will stop the rebelling that is in our hearts. Daily repentance and falling at the foot of the cross is the only cure for our sin sick souls. Jesus went to the cross because he knew that we could not be perfect. We don’t need help to reach the perfection that God demands; we need a substitute. We need a Savior to rescue us.
We don’t walk through life on egg shells, fearful that we’ll offend our Holy God. In peace with Jesus we walk with eyes wide open, not only on guard against temptation, but also looking for ways to give our gracious God thanks and praise. What will future generations think of us when they look at our lives in the pages of history? Look away from temptation. Never look away from your gracious God!
Walk This Way: Look Away
Topic(s): Lent
Book(s): 1 Corinthians
Series: Walk This Way
Tag(s): Children of Israel
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg