Vineyard Church of Knox County
Looking Back … Choosing Forward
Sermon Audio from Sunday, November 6, 2005 — We've had a very powerful fall in this church as we saw God work in incredible ways, touching people, changing people, pouring out His Spirit and His blessings on us during our Giving Campaign. People are different, this church is different, God blessed us and we responded in a mind-blowing generosity, far greater than we could have predicted. What an incredible fall this was. God is good.
As we move forward and transition to the next leg of our journey together with God, it is vitally important for us to reflect back and ask the question, what happened? I think it would be a tragic mistake for us to simply move forward without building on the foundational changes that God has performed in us. God was teaching us something of how He works and what it means to be His people, I think we need to pause and reflect on that. More than just reflecting so that we can learn what we did right, we need to reflect back so that we can walk in the new truth and knowledge of what God did. I believe this transition to the next leg of our journey is a vital transition for every person here as a follower of Christ. This transition time, I believe, will in many ways determine the kind of Christian life we live from this day forward. Each person must choose how you will move forward in your walk with Jesus. You see, we can choose to reflect back and put the memories into the photo album of our mind, choosing to open it when we need a boost. Or we can choose to take what we experienced and learned and put it, not on a shelf for an occasionally glance, but at the core of our lives. You've seen the makeover shows, some of them extreme including plastic surgery, while others are just a change of wardrobe or a new kitchen. Those people, after their renewal had to choose to continue to live in that newness or to go back to their old ways of life. Well God made over this church and many people here in varying degrees and various ways, and now we have to decide to continue to live in that newness. We must choose how we transition into the next leg of our journey, both as a church and as individuals. What will we choose?
