John K. Jenkins Sr - I'm Not Going Back

If you ever look back at your past and think , "What was I thinking?" I'm just trying to see how many honest people we have who will admit that there are some seasons in your life when you reflect on choices and decisions, the people you hung out with, the habits you adopted, and the things you did that make you say, "Man, that was crazy. Amen!" I'm giving you a second chance to tell the truth. How foolish would it be for people today to dress like that? You would think there 's something wrong with that person. Come on, if someone walked in here with a big collared shirt and an apple hat, you would think there 's something wrong with them. The reality is that it looks foolish if they do that. But in reality, when it comes to our behavior, some of us are going back into our past, recalling and dragging into today things we used to do that we should no longer be doing. I want to talk to you today about " I'm not going back." Tell your neighbor, " I'm not going back." Tell the person on the other side, "I am not going back." Tap the person in front of you and turn around to the person behind you and say, "I don 't know about you ; you might go back, you might want to rehearse it, but I am not going back." Can I get an amen from somebody? Now, let me clarify: this is a one-point message. Just one point-that 's it. I'm learning that y 'all can 't handle three points, so I 'll have to give it to you one point at a time. I want you to walk out of here with that mindset , with that mentality, with that thought: I can 't go back; I won 't go back. What do I want to go back for? I want you to walk away with this mentality in mind when the devil presents you with opportunities to do the things from which God has delivered you . I want you to say to yourself, "I am not going back because we are moving forward." As a matter of fact, God has something to say about going back. Proverbs 26 tells us this; allow me to read verse 11 for you. It says, "As a dog returns to its own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." I didn 't call you a fool; the God of the universe did . God has a thought about someone who goes back to something they used to do-He calls you a fool . There are some fools sitting around you; there are some fools in your row. Go ahead, look around and see if you can figure out who they are . You 'll notice that if they don't turn around and look, they know they are a fool. Yeah, the Bible calls you a fool. It says, "This is what a fool does." As a matter of fact, this is God's thought on the matter. I mean, think about it: if someone came in here today in bell-bottom pants, an apple hat, and a big collared shirt, sitting next to you with their Bible in hand, you would say there 's something wrong with this person-something isn ' t quite right about them, and you would call them a fool. That 's what God is saying when you return to your folly. Let me define-before I talk about folly, let me talk about the fool. The Bible, in many places, speaks about a foolish person. In this 26th chapter, it says a lot about fools. In verse 1, it says, "Honor is not fitting for a fool." A fool doesn 't deserve honor. In verses 4 and 5, it says , "Don 't answer a fool according to his foolishness." In verse 6, it says, "Don 't send a message by a fool." In verses 7 and 9, it says a proverb is useless in the mouth of a fool. Verse 8 says, "Don 't give honor to a fool." Twice in the same chapter, it mentions that honor is not fitting for a fool- don't honor them. A fool is in a dishonorable place, and verse 11 further says, "A fool repeats his folly." A fool goes back to doing foolish things. That 's what folly means-it means foolish things. As a matter of fact, the words fool and folly have similar definitions; they mean to do something stupid. Y 'all ever done something stupid? Why are you acting like I'm not talking to you ? I 'm talking to you . The last thing I want to do is something foolish; the last thing I want to be referred to as is stupid or silly. Yet, God says when somebody behaves in certain ways, they are a fool. In fact, it 's so foolish that God compares a fool 's behavior to that of a dog. Wow! Come on, talk to me . As a matter of fact, He says in verse 11, "The same way that a dog returns to its own vomit, a fool returns to his own folly." A dog will vomit, and you do know that a dog 's vomit is the expulsion of something from its stomach. It 's generally an indication that something is wrong.