DON’T LET YOUR PAST DETERMINE YOUR FUTURE

TEXT: ISAIAH 43:17-19; ECCL. 1:9-10

Our past is valuable but it can limit our tomorrow especially if we have failed in one way or another.

The word of God reveals to us four reasons you have a great destiny and four ways to restart God’s plan for your life.

Today is the last Sunday of 2024.We have 52 weeks in every year. Today is the 52 Sunday of this year. God has been faithful to us as individuals, families and church. We have come to thank Him.

We are going to see how we can let our past limit us, why our destiny is greater than have we anticipate, and how to get your future back on God’s fast track.

Let us learn:

THE PAST IS VALUABLE BUT LIMITING:

1. We cherish the memories of times and people long gone.

• The Apostle Paul once said (Phil 3:14) “Forgetting things which are behind.”
• These are things that are behind, these are the failures, the unpleasant things-let them not control your futures ignore them to extend of forgetting them.

1. We cherish the foundations of our experiences and knowledge.

• Who and what we are in cumulative sum of our past life and experiences.
• We have had a great experience with the Lord in our past year we ought to remember.
• God told the Israelites to make the memorials to commemorate the great deeds He had done.

1. Our past: The Springboard of for the future, the launching pad for the future.

• The only reason to “forget the past” is so we will work today than we have never done anything before. We need to seek God Saves way!!

1. Maybe your Past hasn’t been all success.

• Israel had messed up royally, for many years they had turned away from God and had been idolaters and indulged in every sort of sin, yet God told them to stop dieseling on it.
• Maybe you are there tonight! The good news is God is giving you a fresh new beginning.
• Get the past under the blood and move on!!!
• God is more interested in our future than our past.
• You can’t alter your past, but you can put your past on the altar!
• So, we should not let our past achievement limit that we perceive God can do us in the future.

YOU HAVE A GREAT DESTINY BECAUSE.

1. You belong to God.

• “You are not your own, you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body and in your spirit, which are God’s”- 1st Cor 6:19-20.

• Go is jealous over what is His. He guards and fights for what is His own.
• You are God’s property. God is going to take with Him to Heaven before the Anti-Christ arises’
• You have the destiny that spans the trillions of galaxies and supersedes the laws of space and time.

1. God has a plan for your Life.

1. “For I know the plans that l have for you, declares the Lord:  plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”- (Jer. 29:11)
2. God does not like it when His plans get messed up.

• He always finds another way to complete them.
• For example: The potter that marred the clay pot he was working on-Jeremiah 18:4
• Even if your life is messed up, God is not finished with you yet!
• He has developed a NEW plan for your life, taking you from where you are today, and moving you forward to a great future.

1. You are a winner not a loser.

You will eventually triumph!!

1. “You are of God “…….-1 John 4:4.
2. In Adam you were a loser, but in Christ the second Adam you were born again a Winner!!

• God is not a loser so you cannot be a loser!
• You are not an accident, you are not a mistake.
• In eternity, you were a past of God’s plan -you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
• When you were born again you were born into God’s family in His likeness and born of the spirit of God.
• You were a child of most high God. You are a child of the king, Royal blood now flows in your veins!! You are not average! You are not “border line.”
• You are an overcomer! An overcomer does not win every battle, but never gives up the fight until victory is won.
• We don’t fight to win but we fight because we have already won. The battle is fixed, the winner is already known!!
• No weapon formed against you is going to prosper-Romans 54:17.
• Don’t build your future around your past.
• Satan may hinder you but he cannot stop you.

HOW TO RESTART YOUR FUTURE.

1. Get right with God.

1. Repent. Often we suffer because God is chastening us for some sin or disobedience.

• For victory, the first step is to eliminate any problem or break in the fellowship between us and God.

1. Perform full obedience. God works through obedience.

1. Intercede Fast and Pray-James 4:2.
2. Do spiritual warfare against enemy-Eph. 6:10-12.

• We can bind and loose (Matt 16:19; 18:18)
• We can cast out the devils in the Name of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:17)
• We can plead the blood of Jesus Christ (Rev .12:11).
• We can ask God to loose His warring angels against the enemy (Matt 26:53)

1. Stand on the word and claim your Blessings (2 Peter 1:4)

• It was by believing and laying hold of God’s promises that Abraham received his promised Son- Issac. (Rom 4:21)
• God has promised you better days (Psalm 30:5) Deliverance (Psm. 34:19-20) Bodily Healing (Isa. 53:4-5) Comfort in sorrow (Isa. 42:2), Your physical need to be met-(John 14:1-3) and sufficient grace (2nd Cor. 12:9)
• God has promised to richly reward us, when we stand firm on the promises-(Heb. 10:35-36).

CONCLUSION

• Don’t let your past determine your future.
• The only sure way to get on God’s fast track is to repent or poor choices, intercede, do warfare with the enemy and stand on God’s promises.
• Claim the life God wants you to have.