Key to a Successful New Year

Many of us will not move successfully into tomorrow because we're still chained to yesterday. Dr. Tony Evans says our future is partially determined by how tightly we hold on to the past. There comes a time when you have to let yesterday go. That means there's got to be some forgiveness of things you're holding on to, of regrets that you have, things that you cannot change. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative.

Exercise more, lose weight, get organized. There are plenty of resolutions we can make for 2021. But today, Dr. Evans shares four essential biblical concepts that can ensure a positive future.

Let's join him. I want to give you the keys to a successful new year. I want to call your attention to Joshua chapter 1. And I want you to see a word in the end of verse 7 and the end of verse 8 of Joshua 1. The last phrase of Joshua 1, 7, so that you may have success wherever you go.

The end of verse 8 says, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. So God uses the word success to talk to Joshua. So obviously, success is not a bad word because God uses it twice in these first few verses of the first chapter. The problem is not with the word success.

It's one of God's words. The problem is the definition of the word success. In our world today, success is measured by prosperity. The more money you have, the more successful you are believed to be. By your position, if you get to a certain height or level in your occupation, it's easy to be viewed as successful. By prominence, if you reach a level of notoriety, then people will view you as having achieved a level of success.

Or power, if you gain clout, if you gain a position, then you will be viewed as successful. But many of us know rich failures. Many of us know prominent failures. We know powerful failures.

We know positional failures. In other words, we know that those terms don't necessarily equal success. But since it's not a bad word, since God uses it and encourages Joshua to pursue it, what then is success in the biblical worldview and in the kingdom economy? Success in the Bible is defined as fulfilling your divinely ordained reason for being. Success is fulfilling your divinely ordained reason for being. The ingredients of success is when you have gotten to a point that you are normatively regularly fulfilling the will of God in such a way that God is glorified, that people are benefited, and that his kingdom is expanded. No matter how much money you make, position you achieve, prominence or acclaim you have, if you're not doing the will of God, if God's name is not being promoted and advertised, if other people are not benefiting and if God's kingdom is not expanded, you are a failure. So the issue is not the problem with the word success.

The issue is with the wrong definition that we use to pursue it. The world is wanting to give you a different definition than God's definition and allow that definition to make you a failure while they give you the impression you're on your way to success. But if you will be open for the next few moments to four keys that will unlock the door to your true success as you advance in the world in which God has placed you, as you pursue his will for his glory, for the benefit of others, which includes you, as well as for the expansion of his kingdom, I can guarantee you will be successful as God guarantees to Joshua he will be successful. Key number one to being successful, using God's definition, leave yesterday behind. Notice what he says in chapter 1 verse 2, Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise and cross the Jordan. Moses is dead, you get up and get going. In just a short time, you get to say goodbye to this year. You get to leave this year behind.

Don't carry this year in the next year, let it die. Moses my servant is dead, it's over, you get up and you get going. This past year was filled with good things, bad things, disappointing things, celebrating things, a variety of things, good, bad and ugly, but when you cross over, you got to say goodbye. Because God wants to take you to something new, he doesn't want you to live on something old. Many of us will not be successful because we're living in yesterday, whether it's the past positives or the past negatives. There comes a time when you have to let yesterday go, that means there's got to be some forgiveness of things you're holding on to, of regrets that you have, things that you cannot change, but that are holding you hostage to yesterday.

Many of us will not move successfully into tomorrow because we're still chained to yesterday. Now every car needs a good rear view mirror. You need to be able to, from time to time, look in the rear view mirror and see what's behind you.

But no driver lives in the rear view mirror. You glance at it from time to time along the way. You live in the windshield because the difference between the small piece of glass that takes you back and this big piece of glass is that the big piece of glass is taking you forward.

The windshield is taking you forward while the little piece of glass is taking you back. Glance every now and then back to yesterday, but live in the future of where God wants you to go. Second thing, seize your inheritance. Notice what he says in verse three and four. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

From the wilderness of this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, as far as the great sea, toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. The first key to a successful New Year is to leave the past behind. But the second key to a successful New Year's is to seize your inheritance. And inheritance is an allotted portion. If you have a will or you're in somebody's will, they have allotted a certain amount that will go to you, or you have allotted a certain amount that will be passed on to your offspring.

It is an allotted portion. Every believer has an allotted portion. Every believer has been given time, talents, and treasures that have been allotted to you for the purposes of fulfilling God's will for your life.

You are in God's will, and you have an allotted portion of purpose that is a reason for your being. Every believer has an inheritance. When he told Joshua to cross over the Jordan, all 12 tribes had an allotted portion of land, a piece of property that belonged to them, and they were to go get their property. But please notice, he wasn't just going to give it to them. They had to go get it.

He says in verse 3, every place on which the sole of your foot treads. So I have it, but you got to go get it. Let me explain something. Much of what God has for you, you got to go get it.

Okay, let me put it this way. God's promises are often in your reach, not in your hand. Ephesians 2 10 says, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he has created beforehand that we should walk in them. Now I love that verse.

Let me connect it with Joshua. God had already prepared the land for Israel. They weren't going to make something happen. They were going to get what was already prepared for them to receive. Ephesians 2 says, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So their movement was to get what God had already arranged. Let me tell you how good God is. The inheritance that God had for them was being held by sinners.

I love that. The sinners didn't know they were holding on to the inheritance that belonged to the saints. Do you know the devil's holding on stuff that belongs to you? Do you know that hell is holding on stuff that belongs to heaven?

But hell is allowed to hold on to it because we won't get up and cross the Jordan and we won't walk and lay hold of what God has already created beforehand that we should walk in them. Dr. Evans will come back to share the third and fourth keys to a successful new year in just a moment. Stay with us. Plus, you'll also receive Dr. Evans' devotional book, Called for a Purpose. Go online to TonyEvans.org. Remember, you'll get a total of 20 of Tony's most popular messages focusing on the keys to spiritual growth, biblical ways to beat worry and anxiety, how to know God cares about you personally, and much more. This special offer ends tomorrow, so get in touch with us right away to make your generous year-end contribution, and we'll send you the best of Tony Evans 2020 and his popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose. Make the arrangements at TonyEvans.org or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are standing by to help you with your request 24-7. Again, dial 1-800-800-3222.

Well, right now, Dr. Evans is back with more of the keys for a successful new year. So the first thing you've got to do is you've got to let yesterday go. Have a memorial service.

Visit it as you need to, but don't live there. Then you go seize your inheritance. God, I'm going to now go after what I know you want me to go after and believe you'll show me the rest along the way. The third way that you will have a successful new year, watch this one, to focus on God, not people. Verse 5, no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Now look at the beginning of verse 6, be strong and courageous. Look at the beginning of verse 7, only be strong and courageous. Look at the beginning of verse 9, have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? The end of verse 18, only be strong and courageous.

Watch this. Why is he telling him to be strong and courageous? Because when Joshua crosses the Jordan, and when you cross the calendar, to lay hold of what God has for you, there's going to be spiritual resistance. See the Hittites had it, the Amorites had it, the Jebusites had it, the Canaanites had it.

All the evil folks had what belonged to Israel. So there would be the temptation to be scared to go get it. Because if I go after what God has for me, what are they going to say? What are they going to think?

What are they going to do? How are they going to stop me? Because they're bigger than I am, they're stronger than I am, how can I do it? So he tells Joshua, no man will be able to resist you all the days of your life. So watch this, the only person who can stop what God has for you is you. Because no man can stop what God has for you when you go after it for God's glory, the benefit of others, the expansion of his kingdom, as you live out his will for your life. No man.

I don't care how much money they have, prestige they have, promise they have, power they have. He says, no man. There would be two things that will always give you courage. You have to know, number one, that you're on a divine assignment. Secondly of all, you must be operating in God's presence.

He says, and I will be with you. See, because if you go out there without God, you're by yourself. That's why pursuing the relationship with the Lord is so important, because you don't only need the assignment, you need his presence.

See, a lot of people want the assignment but don't want the presence. One of the great stories in the Bible is when Moses, given to go up in the promised land, he told Moses, you go, but I'm not going with you. In other words, go get the promise, but you won't have my presence. So God separated the promise from his presence. And Moses, in the wisdom of the moment, said, if you don't go with me to the promise, I will stay with the presence and wait on the promise.

In other words, I'm not going to go after the promise without your presence, because I need you when I go face this opposition. Hell is waiting for you in the new year. Satan is waiting for you. The enemies of God are waiting for you because they don't want to give up what they own that really belongs to you. That's why you've got to say, I'm going to go after it and I'm going to get it, because God is with me.

I have prioritized his presence as I pursue my assignment. The fourth one, the final one, is you must stay tethered to God's word. He says in verse 7, be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.

Do not turn to it from the right or the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. You shall meditate on the day and night so that you may be careful, meticulous, to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous. He says three things about the word. Proclaim it, possess it, and practice it. This book of the law shall not leave your mouth.

That means you're going to proclaim it. You're going to speak it. You're not just going to hear me speak it, you're going to speak it. See, we speak the wrong people's words. We speak what other folks say, what other folks think. We get a million opinions when God has given his final word. When God speaks, he does not stutter.

And you are to say what God says and not let everybody else try to talk you out of what God says. He says speak it, but you can only speak what you possess. That's why he tells them to meditate on it. Meditate is what a cow does with a cud. You drive down the highway, you see the cows over there, they're chewing.

But a cow has more than one stomach, so they regurgitate it and chew on it again until they finally chew on it and it becomes part of their system. That's the word meditate. It means to take the word, chew on it until it becomes part of your system. It doesn't mean to hear a sermon and then forget it and come back the next week for another sermon you're going to forget. In fact, if you come to church 52 weeks out of the year, that's 52 sermons you forgot. That's because between Sunday and Sunday you never meditated on it. You never recalled it.

You never relooked at it. And so because you didn't meditate on it, you can't proclaim it. He says proclaim it, possess it, and the best way to possess it is to practice it. He says and be careful to do all. He says don't turn from the left or the right. You're driving down the highway, you're in a lane, right? That lane has a line on this side, a line on that side.

You know what that means? Stay between the lines. Don't go over here talking about I'm just a little over the line.

Don't go over here saying I'm just a little over the line. No, he says don't go to the right or the left because if you do, you liable to have an accident. He says stay between the lines. A football team gets three points when they stay between the posts. The kicker can't say, but I was close.

No, you got to hit between the posts in order to get the field goal. He says stay between the lines. Don't go to the right, don't go to the left. To put it another way, don't let human opinion cause you to veer off. Don't let what everybody else thinks and what everybody else says will cause you to veer off of my word. He says be careful. In other words, take meticulous detail not to add to my words, take away from my words, operate outside my words cause then you'll possess my words and then proclaim my words and guess what he said, and then you'll have success.

Why? Because God is committed to his word. I tell you before when I was going to Fort Worth, I'm going to Fort Worth and I'm out in the country somewhere and the church should have been just a couple of blocks away. I go to the 7-Eleven, he tells me go further, I go further.

Dr. Doolittle is a pastor out there cause they ain't nothing but animals. Turn back around, I come to a light, wind down the window. Ask the guy, do you know where this church is? He said yeah, he said turn down here. I turned down there, it was a neighborhood, no church.

I'm late. But then I decided to pick up the directions that had been sent to me. I said get off this exit, I got off that exit, but it said then turn right. I turned left cause I leaned to my own understanding and didn't read the whole paper.

But you know what made it worse? I asked people along the way. And when I asked people along the way, they messed me up more. Cause they sounded like they knew what they were talking about.

Oh sure, go down there two miles, you're going to see it. I'm lost as a skunk, listening to folk. When the pastor of the church sent me the directions, and he should know where his church is located. You see, I kept the first part, went down the right highway. I kept the second part, went off the right exit, but I didn't do all that was written. And because I didn't do all that was written, I still wind up getting lost. See a lot of us do a little bit of the word here and a little bit of the word there.

We don't do the whole word and wonder why we still lost after we've done a few things God has said. Dr. Tony Evans will come back to wrap up today's message with a final challenge in just a moment. First though, let me remind you of that special offer I mentioned earlier. When you make your year-end contribution today, we'll say thanks by sending you the best of Tony Evans 2020. An audio collection on CD and digital download containing 20 of Tony's most requested messages, as well as his powerful devotional book, Called for a Purpose.

See your talents and interests through God's eyes and discover the purpose God has in store for you. This book is a great resource for the new year and goes hand in hand with the principles Dr. Evans has been sharing today. Just drop by tonyevans.org to get the details and make your contribution online. Again, that's tonyevans.org.

Or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members assist with your request. What's the point of wanting more when we don't appreciate what we already have? Dr. Evans will answer that question tomorrow when he explains how to ask God for a blessing that will not only change your new year, but the rest of your life.

Right now though, he's back with this final challenge for us. In the new year, I challenge you to take these four principles. I challenge you to leave yesterday behind, to seize your inheritance. I challenge you to stop letting people be the determining factor. And I challenge you to stay tethered to God's word. And I bet you, you're going to have some testimonies of success. So shift your perspective. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.