I Won't Turn Back...NOW! | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson by Chad Erickson First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN) Kind: sermon Scripture: Philippians 3:13, Exodus 14:3, Exodus 14:15, Luke 17:32, Luke 9:62, Isaiah 43:18-19, 2 Peter 2:21-22, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Deuteronomy 31:8, Exodus 14:1-31, Isaiah 52:12, Numbers 32:1-5, Numbers 32:6-8, Philippians 3:13, Isaiah 58:8, Exodus 15:19, Psalm 136:13-15, Exodus 9:1, Mark 16:16-18 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/chad-erickson--i-wont-turn-back-now Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ stand with me all over this house amen as pastor has already welcomed our guests thank you thank you for making this your place of worship and what a beautiful time we're having together tonight amen amen so good to have brother cade abbott's mom and dad with us this weekend always so thankful for brother cade uh what a beautiful minister of music he is and not just music he's a preacher of the word of god and just absolutely a blessing to this church and we give his parents honor amen for allowing us amen to have him minister here amen want to say all wasn't our trend center choir absolutely amazing was that not just a blessing there's nothing like hearing songs that you're raised on because it brings you back to moments in your life where you had victory isn't that true trendsetters did that this this evening and i'm gonna i'm gonna end with a song that i learned back in the late 80s that that that still brings memories of victory in my life and so we're just i don't know tonight just been one of those good trendsetter nights while i'm talking about the trendsetters make sure you sign up for quartet convention they can't sing like y'all but just go and support them support those little quartets and stuff they just they need they need help they need you to buy their cds and stuff but just get get in there quartet conventions it's a blast it's just a good time for fellowship in our trenches are taking a trip get signed up amen get signed up i'm just looking around we have so many uh friends that are here with us i also want to say hi to pastor mcbride sister mcbride love you guys so much to see people from all over thank you for being here in east tennessee and maryville and worshiping with us turn it with me in your bibles to the book of philippians chapter three i just want to read one verse 13 and then i've got a couple other verses and chapters and books that you may not have a chance to get to but they'll have them on the screen and so you can follow along if you can't flip through your through your ipad quick enough bible says in verse 13 brethren i count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before then in exodus chapter 14 this is a text i want to preach from verse 3 says for pharaoh will say of the children of israel they are entangled in the land the wilderness hath shut them in i believe pharaoh knows a little bit about entanglement amen verse 15 skip down to verse 15 and the lord said unto moses wherefore christ thou unto me speak unto the children of israel that they go forward and then one more verse one of the shortest verses in your bible luke chapter 17 verse 32 simply says remember lot's wife three words remember lot's wife now listen listen i just believe that god has given me a word tonight to encourage someone that's here come on i know the enemy's near i know pharaoh's on his way because he thinks you're entangled and you are encaptive to the wilderness but i've got news for you today god is on your side and i've come to preach about it god if you make up in your mind tonight that you won't turn back that you won't give up listen now is the time to make a decision i won't turn back now we're going to sing about in just a little while but throw your hands up right here let's make a declaration as a church family father right here in maryvale tennessee lord february the 20th 2022 i'm gonna make a decision lord i'm not turning back i'm not turning around i'm gonna set my feet lord god i just believe you have some great things in front of me and in front of this church and in front of our school i just believe lord god that tonight if we'll make the decision to not turn around and not turn back and not return back to where we've come from i just believe you're gonna bless us and you're gonna help us and you're gonna use us in a mighty way if you'll agree with me put your hands together and just love him bless him praise him give him glory give him honor come on give him the praise he deserves in this house tonight i won't turn back now amen you may be seated as i begin to study this message i i began to search through my bible on the topic of turning back in it and it absolutely blew my mind at how many times that the subject is mentioned in the word of god and you're not going to have time to to turn to these scriptures but i gave them to our media team so just follow along with me luke 9 and 62. jesus said this this is a good way to start right here jesus said no man having put his hand to the pile and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god if you're going to put your hand on the plow you better be going the direction the power's going i like isaiah 43 the bible says remember ye not the former things neither consider the things of old and that's not talking about tradition that's not talking about trendsetters and songs that we used to sing long ago that's talking about back in egypt don't don't remember the things of all he said he said isaiah said don't mirror behold i will do a new thing now it shall spring forth somebody say spring forth shall ye not know it i will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert ii peter 2 21 says for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them but it is happened unto them according to the true proverb the dog is returned or turned to his vomit again and the sow to that which washed to the watering in the mire second corinthians 5 17 therefore if any man be in christ he's a new creature old things are passed away behold all things become new i hope i'm not boring you i'm just i'm just reading word this is a whole lot better than what i'm about to preach on this reading straight word deuteronomy 31 8 says in the lord here it is that doth go before thee or like it says another translation says the lord will personally go ahead of you he will be with thee he will not fail thee neither forsake you he will neither failure nor abandon you bible says fear not neither be dismayed i just want to encourage someone i feel the holy ghost already in this place i feel good in the lord tonight i'm not going to preach a long time but let me tell you something if you're here today and you're discouraged in any way i've come to be an encourager i've come to be an opportunist i'm gonna give you an opportunity to do something about your discouragement i'm gonna give you an opportunity to say god is for me and if god is for me who can be against me you know when we read through our bibles it's it's very easy especially in the old testament to flip a page to turn a page and sometimes we will go through 100 or 200 years of history just by turning the page and it's hard it's really hard for us to comprehend because we we live in a country that's not very old we don't have a lot of history here we we might think we do but really we don't matter of fact our countries only we're about to turn 246 years old which which sounds like a lot of time but it's really not because if you think about the time between joseph leading his family into egypt and moses leading the people out of egypt over 400 years some 430 years and if we define a generation and i i know that that you can you can look up this and google this and you'll get about 10 different answers on what a generation is i've heard it preached in many ways but i looked and it did this just made sense somewhere around 25 years and what they're saying is simply when a person is born to when a person starts having children it's about a generation now you might that might be 20 years that might be if it's 30 years whatever it is but somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 years and and we all understand that about every 20 to 25 years everything changes music clothing even the way we educate my my daughters come home and i'm trying to help them with homework and and they ain't teaching them the way i was taught i'm pulling off shoes trying to count toes and they got all kinds of divide this out slash this number bring this number over here cross this one out bring this i'm like i don't know what you're doing i mean they have different ways of doing everything now every generation has a different way to identify themselves matter of fact if you try to get i'll prove it to you try to get your kids to wear your clothes come on honey it's a skirt a skirt is a skirt they're looking at you like a skirt is not a skirt come on honey put this blouse on girls look at you what is a blouse blouse mouse what's a blouse generations but you're looking so so if we do math and i'm just trying to i'm trying to find i'm in a perspective of time if we look at america we have somewhere around nine generations from the top from the very beginning 1776. till today we have somewhere in the neighborhood don't google me on this of of nine generations i just did math i do know how to use a calculator from the time that we got here onto this great continent came over on wooden boats with with sails riding horses and nine generations later we've already had a vehicle on the moon we got cars now that drive themselves and there's simply nine generations we have we have all this israel was in egypt for 17 generations and they didn't do a thing except maybe become better slaves 17 generations and what i'm getting at here like whoa whoa where are we going with this i'll tell you where i'm going with this god understood what he was dealing with when the people came out there was there was a slave mentality these people for 17 generations and and a lot of times uh you know in our minds again when we begin to read through the old testament we read through the book of exodus and and we're kind of just kind of envisioning people coming out and i know the bible talks about them coming out with a high hand and and i know that the egyptians were throwing their uh their necklaces and their gold and silver out and and i know that that they're walking out as as an army would march out but but you got to kind of in your mind's eye think about those images that are burnt into your mind of post-world war ii when those war camps were set free what those people looked like when those concentration camps were set free what those people look like get get those thoughts in your mind don't get the thoughts of of some great great army coming out of egypt that's not what they look like moses was dealing with with a mentality of people who didn't know anything but to do what they were told to do or else and here they go as they're coming out in verse number one of chapter 14 of exodus i just kind of want to exegete through this a little bit and and kind of bring it into where we're living today but the bible says in the lord spake unto moses saying speak unto the children of israel that they turn and encamp by the sea i'm not even trying to say all that by the sea for pharaoh will say of the children of israel they are entangled in the land the wilderness has shut them in and i will heart in pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them and i will be honored upon pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the egyptians may know that i am the lord and they did so it was no it was no accident that god placed his people in a position where their past could be erased my wife wrote that little tag my past erased my name he changed let's testify god was putting his people into a position where they could watch every taskmaster they can watch that evil egyptian army who had beat them and whipped them and caused them for for generation upon generation to do things that god never meant for them to have to do god wanted to say hey i'm going to put you in a place that erases your past i want you to see your past go down go down i want to see not i want you to see not only your past go down i want you to see them come up on the shore after they've gone down i'm going to preach to that just in a moment but i just believe if we can get a taste of victory i just believe if god listen there's some promotions we get we don't deserve i believe there's some ministries i know i've been put over ministries that i didn't qualify i know as a matter of fact that i married a girl that was way out of my league but i just believe some things i believe that god allows us to taste victory in a way that causes us to say now that i've tasted and seen that the lord is good you're not going to find me going back to what he's brought me out of can anybody testify in this place and they say god's been so good to me i cannot tell at all god's been through so good to me i cannot tell at all i love we used to sing a song as i look back over my life and i think things are yes i can truly say he's brought me all the way i've got a testimony y'all remember that song well sing with me as i look back over my life and i think things i can truly say he's brought me i've got a testimony listen trent says listen i've only got four years i'm a trendsetter although i think i'm gonna move the age up to 60 when i get to 50. i can sing them songs i just believe god was saying hey if i could get my people to taste victory put it on their palate let them let them taste and see what it feels like not to be in bondage for 430 years but to be victorious let me just let them taste and see what that tastes like and i'm not gonna have to worry about them trying to cross back over and get oh somebody help me i thank god he's done so much for me i've got no choice but to keep on moving forward verse 5 says and it was told the king of egypt that the people fled and the heart of pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people and they said why have we done this that we have let israel go from serving us and he made ready his chariots and took his people with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the chariots of egypt and the captains over every one of them verse 8 says and the lord hardened the heart of pharaoh king of egypt and he pursued after the children of israel and the children of israel went out with a high hand but the egyptians pursued after them all the horses and chariots of pharaoh his horsemen his army overtook them and capping by the sea beside the two cities and when pharaoh drew nigh the children of israel lifted up their eyes and beheld the egyptians marching after them and they were so afraid and the children of israel cried unto the lord and they said unto moses because there was no graves in egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness wherefore hast thou dwelt thus with us to carry us forth out of egypt verse 12 is not this the word that we did tell thee in egypt saying let us alone that we may serve the egyptians for it had better for us to serve the egyptians then that we should die in the wilderness well let me stop right here and preach because it's this very spirit that i've come to fight against tonight it's this very way of thinking i've come to fight against tonight because some people would rather die in bondage than fight for freedom some people would rather be serviced to the world than fight for the freedom for the future generations oh i'm going to preach about that in just a moment but for 17 generations this had to be the mentality of the people it was a multi-generation curse just leave us alone this is just this these are the cars we've been dealt we're just gonna have to put up with this this is just who we are we're slaves that's what we are that's what we do that's all we'll ever do but thank god for someone who had vision like pastor priest named moses that god could speak to and say one guy one person all i need is one deliverer to walk in there and say come on boys come on ladies get up on your feet we can get out of here we have a god who's able come on somebody i'm talking about 17 generations of people that moses had to convince our god is able verse 13 moses said unto the people fear he not stand still and see the salvation of the lord which he will show you today for the egyptians whom you have seen today ye shall see them again no more the lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace and the lord said unto moses wherefore cry in style speak unto the children of israel that they go forward god simply said i'm sick and tired of hearing crying i just want you to walk out there and walk up to those people and say we're going to keep on moving forward i won't turn back now i won't turn back now no matter what the devil says no matter what the enemy says i refuse to give up to give in oh help us oh god we're going to keep on moving forward i thought about just telling the story but there's so much in this scripture that you're gonna miss if i just go off and and give you my rendition of the story verse 16 said but lift thou up by rod talking to moses and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it and the children of israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea and i behold i will harden the hearts of egyptians and they shall follow them and i will get me honor upon pharaoh and upon all his hosts upon his chariots upon his horsemen and the egyptians shall know that i am the lord when i have gotten me honor upon pharaoh upon his chariots and upon his horsemen look at verse 19 and the angel of god which went before the camp of israel removed and went behind them and the pillar of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them oh he's on the right he's on the left in front and back under me over me come on somebody he's on the right he's on the left in front our god listen he is able to be a pillar of cloud by day and leads you out of egypt but he's also able to cause that pillar cloud to go behind you and to build a wall against your enemy the very same god who led his people out of egypt said i'll never leave you i'll never forsake you you don't have to worry about me abandoning you i am for you my thoughts are towards you for an expected end listen i'm so thankful that god formed a wall between their past and their future y'all see that he said i've got a form a wall god built a wall so they couldn't see their past and so their past couldn't see them and sometimes walls are used to protect us from a physical attack and other times walls are used to protect us from ourselves god understood the mentality of those people he was dealing with people with this mentality of giving up and giving in they had no strength of mind and he thought i'm gonna i'm gonna stop the enemy from seeing them which is good but even probably more importantly i'm gonna keep them from seeing the enemy i listen i thank god for walls that he's built in my life that keep me from seeing the enemy if you knew back then what you know now would you still be here today let me say that again if you knew back then what you know now would you still be here today i'm talking about after the cancer and after the heart disease and after the broken marriage and after that ugly divorce and after those backslidden children after the bankruptcy after that staying reputation let me tell you something if god wouldn't have put up a wall between you and your enemy i believe there's somebody in this place that wouldn't be in this place but thank god that he has a way of blinding us to go the direction he needs us to go in the direction that we are to go i'm thankful oh thank god i couldn't see some of the things that have gone on in my life because i don't know where i'd be today if i knew what was happening but oh i'm so thankful for a god who uses his power to build a wall in the wall he builds protects us from the enemy and it protects us from ourselves isaiah 52 and 1 or 52-12 the second half says for the lord will go before you and the god of israel will be your reward or it simply means he will protect you from behind moses said stand still and don't give up now he brought us out of the myrik clay he set our feet on a rock to stay listen if you choose to be fond of memories back in egypt why don't you remember the blood water why don't you remember the lights i wanted to remember the frogs why don't you remember the boils why don't you remember the hell if you're gonna remember something remember the good things of god and what he's done in your life it's called a testimony my god everybody's got a testimony whether you've been saved out of drugs and alcohol and all kinds of sex and all kinds of horrible things in your back life or if you simply never did any of those things that's a testimony in itself you ought to be able to be proud you go to your classes in college you're a freshman a sophomore and everybody's talking about what they did over the weekend well you won't believe what i did i did this on today you can stand up and testify and say i didn't do none of that stuff i'm a virgin and i'm proud to be a virgin my god help words like that not become bad words hollywood's putting out movies about 40 year old virgin and this and that and causing people to to kind of shy away well i don't want to give my testimony because i don't have some some flamboyant testimony about what i've been brought i'm just that guy who's never done anything well congratulations that just means you got baggage that other you don't have baggage that other people have you don't have things holding you down that other people have you don't have to look back over your life and be sorry for the things you've done you can testify and say i'm free i'm free god's been so good to me i'm free i'm free god's been so good to me whatever you do don't think back and have fond memories of bondage listen i can't stand when people turn their testimonies into bragging about what they used to do like it's some glamorous thing well if you knew how many girls i've dated in my past and my my god thinking once like a bird in prison i dwelled no freedom from my sorrow i failed but jesus came and listened to me glory to god he set me free he set me free yes he set me free he broke the ponza prison for me i'm glory pound my jesus to see for glory to god he set me free now i am climbing higher each day darkness of night has drifted away my feet are planted on higher ground in glory to god i'm homeward bound goodbye to sin and things that confound not of this world can turn me around daily i'm praying i'm working to in glory to god i'm going through he set me free yes he set me free he broke the bounce a prison for me my jesus to see glory to god he set me free come on give him praise have you been set free in this place come on that's what we look back upon right there freedom somebody shout freedom freedom freedom it's not what i used to do in glamour is it no longer do i have to be bound by those sins and those things they used to trim me up and call me down and wave me to thank god i'm free i won't turn back down no you may be seen in verse 20 and it came between the camp of the egyptians and the camp of israel talking about that cloud that wall and it was a cloud and darkness to the egyptians but it gave light by night to the people of god so that the one that came not near the other all night long verse 21 and moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and may the sea dry land and the waters divided and the children of israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground and the waters were a wall under them on the right hand and on the left hand and the egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the sea even all of pharaoh's horses and his chariots and his horsemen it came to pass that in the morning watch the lord oh i like that right there in the morning watch in the morning watch let me tell you something it's always dark it's right before the dawn in the morning watch in the morning watch the lord looked unto a host of egyptians through the pillar of fire in the cloud and troubled the hosts of the egyptians and took off their cherry wheels oh think about this and drave them heavily so that the egyptians said let us flee from the face of israel for the lord fighters for them against the egyptians and the lord said unto moses stretch out the hand over the sea and the waters they may come together again upon the egyptians upon their chariots upon their horsemen and moses stretched forth his hand over the sea and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared and the egyptians fled against it and the lord overthrew the egyptians in the midst of the sea and the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the hosts of pharaoh that came in the sea after them there remain not so much as one of them but the tune of israel walked upon tri-land in the midst of the sea and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on their left look at verse 30 with me thus the lord saved israel that day out of the hand of the egyptians and israel saw the egyptians dead upon the seashore and israel saw the great work which the lord did upon the egyptians and the people fear the lord and believe the lord and his servant moses i'm so thankful that we don't have to fear the enemy but we can fear the lord listen you fear the enemy for a different reason then you fear the lord you feel the fear the enemy for the horrible things he's going to do to you but when you fear the lord you give him reverence and you say god you are lord of all your lord over my life your lord of my wife's life your will vote over my children's life we fear you you are our god and we are your people somebody clap your hands if that's your god tonight you may see that i'm moving i'm moving i'm moving the red sea was the passage from bondage to freedom but if 40 years later they come upon the jordan river and that was the passage from wandering into promise the israelites had to make the same decision to move forward but this time it was across the jordan river they had to leave moses and all the elders buried in the wilderness and they had to follow the priests and the ark across the river or at least that was the plan however you see there were israelite tribes who never crossed over oh i want to preach about this for a moment because we can all relate to this this is where we're living we're talking about whole tribes we're talking about families that the ark of god passed over to the other side of the jordan into the promised land and there were tribes the tribe of reuben of gad and half of the tribe of manasseh that never made it across the jordan numbers 32-1 again i'm not going to apologize for reading all the scripture because you got to see this for yourself the children of reuben the children of god had a very great multitude of cattle and when they saw the land of jazzer and the latter land of gilead that beheld the place for cattle the children of god and the children of reuben came and spake unto moses and said the elies are the priests and under the princes of the congregation sane and they named all these places even the country verse 4 which the lord smote before the congregation of israel is a land for cattle and thy servants have cattle wherefore said they if we have found grace in thy sight let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession and bring us not over jordan can you imagine from egypt from bondage to wandering around in a wilderness to seeing the promised land across the jordan and they stopped right there they thought we've got cattle and this is good enough we can settle and be satisfied for what we have right here but i'm preaching about moving forward i'm preaching about not going back i'm preaching about a promise being before you what's so sad is people get satisfied to stop as soon as things get good in their life here god has a promise has a ministry has a future and here you are looking down and saying well there's some green grass on this side of the jordan and we've got a lot of cattle and it just would make sense that we would feed our cattle on this grass but here is the problem here is the problem and i don't want to get too far ahead of myself but i just believe there's people in this place today even in our century in the apostolic movement who have been walking the walk and talking the talk and they get into their later years of life into the season of life where they can look into the promised land and what i can't wrap my little mind around is they retire from god i'm talking about we live we live in the smoky mountains if you go up any given day into pigeon forge gatlinburg you're going to see you're going to see apostolics everywhere and i finally i finally kind of learned my lesson because i used to walk up just assuming that they're tourists and and stick my hand out hey i'm chad erickson i'm from maryville tennessee and and i go to first apostolic church of maryville where do you go to church in time after time after time after time after time i'm meeting people that say well we just retired up here we really haven't found a church yet and then brother hammond i get kind of excited because i'm like oh god i've got a church for you when you when did you move well about 14 years ago y'all think i'm joking time and time again and i'm thinking myself so so you live this life you followed every standard of holiness that was preaching the pulpits that you went to the churches separation from the world you looked apart you act apart you walked apart but you found grass on this side of jordan and you're not going to go to the other side here you are in the in the later years this this is the time when you get to actually enjoy life and hear the priest is bringing the ark across the river the very thing that you followed all your you've been following first it was a cloud and a pill of fire and then you then you had a tabernacle and you had the presence of god that sat upon the mercy and now it's an art that you're following and you're not going to follow god across the jordan are you kidding me you got this far and you think this is good enough god help us as a church family to never get to the place where we're content just having some grass on the east side of the jordan you're living in the wilderness your wilderness might be green but you're living in the wilderness well let's let's see how let's see here how moses feels about this idea that these guys have in numbers chapter 32 and 6 and moses said unto the children of god and the children of reuben shall your brethren go to war and you just sit here and wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of israel from going over into the land which the lord has given them just like your stinking fathers who i sent out to spy out the land came back with a report that caused people to not want to go and people lack faith and people to fear what was ahead of them just like your daddy's you're gonna sit over here and discourage the very people of god moses said i've been leading for the last 40 years listen let me finish let me put a disclaimer on here because i know some of you some of you bible scholars are like oh but they did go over and they did fight and and they did help the other tribes conquer the land you're right they did but you know what else they did they left their children and their wives back over the other side of jordan oh yeah oh yes see the deal was they built cities in this land and left their kids on the other side of jordan oh i'm about to jump up on a soapbox if this thing would hold me i would jump up on it to think that we're in an apostolic church that has a christian school on the other side of that wall with holy ghost-filled teachers the best music program the best sports program great education our kids are all going and getting scholarships and going to all kinds of universities all across everywhere we're about to get into we're about to get into even a new league of sports a new league of education that's gonna put us at the very top of the state but who cares about that your kids are being taught by holy ghost-filled teachers with a holy ghost-filled school pastor and holy ghost-filled coaches we got small groups going on every day of the week we got more small group time going on they got family time we know that small groups are where teachers are listening to students and listening to issues of life and helping them through helping them walk through issues of life and problems and trying to coach them through things we got we got ball coaches who are trying to build teams and and build unity and build fight into young people to fight for what they believe in we're trying we're putting all this together but i just wonder if there's anybody here that would feel okay with leaving your kids at william blind high school while you come over this side of the river into the church oh i know i know i'm probably gonna get some emails i know can't afford it brother erickson if you just understood we got that we have the most least expensive christian school in the world let's just be honest if we've got netflix and hulu cable television gotta have tickets so this season tickets here and season tickets there everybody everybody in the family including the pet dog has a has an iphone come on are we really gonna build cities on the wilderness side of jordan come on father so listen uh listen i'm a father i've got three daughters i've got i've got such a job in front of me listen fathers you gotta rise up with me and say as for me and my house we can't settle on this side of the jordan we gotta walk into the promised land and it can't just be me it can't just be my wife i gotta make sure my children follow me into the promised land because wherever the presence of god goes that's where i want to go that's why i want my wife to go that's where i want my daughters to go i won't turn back now you may be seated i'm rushing to an end all throughout the bible god was always encouraging and sometimes even commanding his people to always look forward move forward don't look behind you forward and we have the scripture that little three word scripture in our text that simply is not a com it's not a question it's not remember lot's wife no no it's a remember lot's wife it's a commandment listen i don't know how good of a mother she was i don't know how good of a cook she was i don't know how good of a wife she was all we know about this woman is she's going to be preached about for all eternity and we're just going to simply say remember lots of wife and the only thing we can even remember about her was that when she should have been moving forward she was looking backwards when she should have been helping lead her daughters out of there she was looking backwards when she should have been a mother who was a holiness a righteousness woman leading daughters and saying hey you don't have to live like sodom and gomorrah you don't have to live in sin we can go to the mountains and we can live for god but instead we only remember her for one thing she looked back don't look back philippians 3 13 another one of our texts brethren i count myself to have apprehended paul said but this one thing i do for getting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before if anyone could understand the spirit of condemnation it would have been the apostle paul it was a constant struggle he had in his life to forget what was in his past paul had to forget saul and press forward you see all of us have a past all of us have a past all of us have listened people know us by a different name there was a lot of people that knew paul just a little bit differently than the church knew paul they knew him as saul the christian hater the christian slayer the christian abuser he had a he had a fight against that reputation he watched people throw stones at christians he watched stones as they broke the skull of stephen he saw all of it he was a part of all of it and he had to live with that and his past could have crippled him in a way to where he was no earthly good for the ministry but thank god he kept on telling himself i gotta keep on pressing forward i gotta keep on forgetting about saul i gotta keep on reaching i gotta press toward the mark i've gotta do something that helps me forget about who i used to be let me tell you something there's nobody in this place who has done so much or has such a life in your history of so much sin that you can't be used of god because even paul wrote over half of our new testament we wouldn't have the words of god if paul would have gotten a hole and felt sorry for himself and found some cave to cower down in over half of our new testament we wouldn't even have today but thank god paul simply said he said listen i count not myself to have every i have not arrived by any stretch of the means but there's one thing i do and when he said this one thing i do i think he had to do it daily i think he had to keep on over and over in his mind for getting those things which are behind forgetting those things which are behind forgetting those things which are behind he said i've got to reach forth under those things which are before somebody said amen somebody said amen keep on reaching isaiah 58 8 and 9. musicians if you come singers you can just take a break just for a few minutes isaiah 58 and 8 it says then your salvation will come like the dawn and your wounds will quickly heal your godliness will lead you forward and the glory of the lord will protect you from behind the glory of the lord will protect us from our past you know the thought the thought hit me i'm almost i'm almost done but the thought hit me i was studying for this and i don't know why i've never really thought about it i've read this story no less than a thousand times and i know the egyptian army was defeated and drowned and i know the wheels fell off the chariots i know all i know the story but something inside of me i begin to think this thought what about pharaoh what about the king of egypt so it began i i went back and began to research and began to study you see when the hebrews sang the song of moses in the in the chapter following the red sea miracle they reveal to us that pharaoh indeed perished when god closed the waters of the sea exodus 15 19 it reports for the horse of pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea and the lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them but the children of israel went on dry land in the midst of the safe see pharah's horse that's singular doesn't say pharaoh's horses because then you could probably think you know maybe it was his horseman or maybe he was it was it was some riding calvary that went in but that but it says pharaoh's horse singular went into the red sea meaning the pharaoh was physically present when the water came together psalm 136 backs us up verse 13 says to him which divided the red sea into the parts for his mercy endureth forever and made israel to pass through the midst of it for his mercy endureth forever but over through pharaoh and his host in the red sea for his mercy endureth forever so i began to think right here i thought okay and i know that that egypt it's a it's symbolically symbolically it's it's the world we know it symbolizes the world and i thought to myself i said god so what does pharaoh represent because it can't be satan because satan doesn't die but i feel god strongly impressed my heart that pharaoh represents strongholds that hold us bondage maybe even addictions that try to follow you out of egypt now come on this might get just a little bit heavy but i want to minister to somebody i want to i believe there's hope for you i wish i could say that when you get delivered out of egypt it's just smooth sailing from there i wish i could say that that what addicted you back then would just disappear but there's a pharaoh a stronghold an addiction that says why in the world did i let him go why did i let her go you say but but brother erickson i was delivered from that oh yeah and they were delivered out of egypt too but there is a stronghold that will try to follow you out of egypt out of the world it's not gonna give up on you it's not just gonna it's not just gonna wash his hands and think well i lost another one oh no no no pharaoh's always going to come after you but here's what i want to preach and give you hope about because god doesn't play games exodus 9 1 says then the lord said unto moses go in unto pharaoh and tell him thus saith the lord god of the hebrews let my people go that they may serve me for if thou refuse to let them go and if you hold if you hold them i'm just stop right here if you mess with god's people and refuse to let them worship you're gonna have a fight on your hands to every addiction nicotine stimulants inhalants alcohol gambling sex painkillers pornography each one of these pharaohs they want you back so bad and they look and they want to act like they're impossible to defeat matter of fact they've told you you cannot defeat me i know you've tried i i know you thought you did this is what they're saying this is what fair was saying he's saying get the chariots get the horsemen get the cavalry mount calvary mounted up we're going listen every one of these for every one of these addictions are gonna come after you and tell you that it's an impossibility to defeat them but i want you to know in this place tonight that strongholds do die i said strongholds do die i don't know what you're facing tonight i don't know what you have in your life i don't know what your enemy looks like i don't know what your pharaoh looks like but i want you to know that god is going to show you something he's going to show you it's going to die it's going to be defeated you're going to see it wash up on the on the seashore you're going to look down and say that used to be my addiction but it's dead it's gone but you gotta make up in your mind i won't turn back i won't give up i won't give in i won't throw in the towel i'll keep on keeping on i'll keep on moving forward you got to make up in your mind god nothing is going to stop me i've come too far to turn back now but see my my title is more than just i won't turn back but this word now that means this moment now you got a makeup in your mind not tomorrow cause this is gonna wear off tomorrow i promise you're gonna wake up tomorrow morning and you're gonna go right back to work or right back to school and pharaoh's just gonna be coming right back after you but you gotta make up in your mind right now at this moment at 7 52 with 55 seconds on february the 20th 2022 right now i refuse to turn back now i refuse to turn back now i refuse to turn back from this moment on from this moment on i'm different i'm going to look back 10 years from now 20 years from now 30 years from now and say it was at that moment it was at that moment i made a decision no more bondage no more nothing's gonna hold me back i'm moving into my promised land i'm moving into my hey it's a struggle for survival i daily meet the foe i'm out there on the battlefield at times i feel i stand alone but when i reach for my holy armor i pick up my shield of faith i march onto the battlefield i take out my sword and say the mountain's high but it's not too steep and the battle is rough but i'm not too weak and i won't turn back no i won't turn back and the road is hot but it's not too long and the enemies are near but it's not too strong and i won't turn back no i won't turn that come on come on make up in your mind make up in your mind say i won't turn back i won't turn back i won't turn i won't turn back hey i won't is the mountain is hot but it's not too steep and the battle is is no i won't turn back hey won't turn this is a second just a second just a second just a second i wouldn't do this if i didn't feel extremely led of god but we're going to do warfare we need to do it the bible way when did the bible way mark chapter 16 please brother sound man hand me loud enough for that to hear me tonight i want you to listen to me mark 16. he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved i want to see the right hand of every person that's been baptized in this place verse 17. and these signs shall follow them that believe how many believers we got in the house tonight i'm going to tell you we're about to we're about to enter in to a realm of warfare right now we're about to enter into a realm of warfare right now the enemy will do everything he can to distract us right now but i find the enemy right now and these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast down devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and the sick shall recover if you meet listen to me now listen to me now if you meet the criteria if you have been baptized in jesus name and you are a believer i give you pastoral permission tonight men to men women to women men to men women to women because it said and they that believe shall lay their hands it didn't say the men and he didn't say the women it just simply said they that believe i wonder tonight to those of you that have been delivered if you would just roam this audience man to man and woman to woman and you find somebody struggling and you've got victory you just lay your hand upon them man the man woman and woman you got victory oh you got victory come on all over this field all over this building lay your hand on them right now lay your hand on them right now lay your hand on them in the name of jesus in the name of jesus oh in the name of jesus oh in the name of jesus right now god oh god in the name of jesus right now oh god let there be healing lord let there be healing oh let there be healing god oh let there be healing i lay my hands upon you brother i lay my hands upon you i have seen god do the miraculous i have seen god do the miraculous god i'm asking you to do the miraculous open the door so they can go to ireland jesus