The Backward Look

It is hard, if not impossible, to plow a straight furrow while looking back.
Luke 9:57-62, Phil. 3:13
*Context: There were those that wanted to follow Jesus but:*

I: Plowing is a Man Size Job.
1. Your mind must be on the job.
2. Not all soil will be loose and sandy.
3. The stumps, rocks, or sprouts are apt to discourage.
4. The backward look may let the plow slip out of the ground or run under a stump and hurt the power.

II: The Backward Look is Dangerous.
1. The backward look of Israel caused them to murmur and complain. It stirred their appetite for fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, but they failed to see the brick kelns.
2. The backward look turned Lots wife to a pillar of salt.
3. The backward look caused Mark to desert Barnabas and Paul.
4. It caused Dumas to forsake Paul.

III: The Backward Look Slows Us Down.
1. One may dwell on the horrible sins of the past and cease to live in the present.
2. One may rest on the labors of yesterday and be useless today.
3. Yesterday, the good old days, seem to stand out as the golden days, but only because we remember the good and forgot the bad.

IV: The Plowman of God Must Look Forward.
1. Without a vision the people perish.
2. Sometimes it demands that we plow under traditions of men.
3. Predigest must be plowed under.
4. Selfishness must be broken up.
5. Excuses dug up and carried out.
6. The fallow ground must be broken deep.
7. We have no right to ask God for a spiritual crop before we prepare the ground.