Forgetting Your Past, Releases Your Future Series

Introduction

· For the past two weeks we have discussed how to change and the importance of change in our lives.

· This week, in order to change to take place and for us to become effective Christians, we must forget our past and embrace our future.

· The Word talks a lot about letting go of our past. God does not want us all cluttered up with the junk of our past.

· God wants us to walk by faith, trust in Him and see our future through His eyes.

· Forgetting and forgiveness go hand in hand, whether it is forgiving yourself or others. When we forgive, we must forget. Forgiving and forgetting positions you to receive God’s best, and go to the next level in life.

· Look at forgetting your past as a key that opens the door to all the promises, riches and blessings of God.

· Let us look to a few scriptures this morning as we uncover how forgetting our past, releases our future.

A. Forgetting your past, releases your future.

(AMP) Philippians 3 12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. 13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

1. When you forget your past, you open the door towards a bright new future.

2. Your past is designed to keep you there; but if you press forward, God has already prepared your future or reward.

3. The Apostle Paul had to release his past identity as Saul, a persecutor of Christians, in order for him to move forward in the ministry to which God called him.

4. When we get saved, we no longer identify with the devil, but with Jesus our Savior. We change camps to the God team. Forgetting our past, releases our future.

B. God’s grace & mercy are new every day.

(NKJV) 1 Timothy 1 12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, 13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

1. Paul obtained grace & mercy for the things he did in his past.

a. Saul imprisoned many Christians because of their beliefs.

2. God will blot out your transgressions.

(NKJV) Isaiah 43 25 “ I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins. 26 Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.

a. God removes & forgets our sins for His benefit.

b. God wants us to put Him in remembrance of His Word rather than our past mistakes & sins.

3. God is merciful and will not remember our sins when we repent & ask for forgiveness.

(NKJV) Hebrews 8 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

C. Forgiving and forgetting.

1. We are to forgive the person who has wronged us.

2. The apostles asked God to increase their faith so they could forgive in the way He expected them to.

(NKJV) Luke 17 3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” 5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

3. To forgive by faith means to do it because the Word says so, regardless of how you feel.

4. Don’t be classified as wicked because you won’t forgive others (Matthew 18:21-35).

a. The servant was considered wicked because he refused to forgive, even though his master had forgiven him of a huge debt.