Three Keys to Reaching Your God-Given Goals (cont'd)

In life, we should all have in our past some moments that were the thrill of victory. But don't fool yourself.

Be honest with yourself. You also have on the other side of the ledger, those moments where you experienced the agony of defeat. You did not win, you lost big time. Instead of successes, you got some failures. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead, I press towards the goal to win the prize of God's heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. That is Philippians 3, 13 and 14, and this is Destined for Victory. When Paul talked about forgetting the past, he didn't just mean the mistakes, he meant the good stuff too. Today, Pastor Paul Shepherd reminds us how important it is to stop looking back and start moving forward towards our destiny in Christ. Today's message is straight ahead. I hope you'll stay right here, or you can visit pastorpaul.net to listen anytime on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, at Spotify, or wherever you get yours. Now, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, three keys to reaching your God-given goals. In life, we should all have in our past some moments that were the thrill of victory, but don't fool yourself, be honest with yourself. You also have on the other side of the ledger those moments where you experienced the agony of defeat.

You did not win, you lost big time. Instead of successes, you got some failures. Anybody in here willing to raise your hand and admit, in my past, when I look back, there are some failures.

All right, thank you for the honesty. Anybody on your row that didn't raise their hand, pray for them. Either pray for them, they're either not self-aware, maybe they haven't lived enough life, but I can't imagine how you live any significant amount of time and not blow it in some way. So instead of successes, on that side of the ledger, you have failures. Instead of proud moments, you have times when you were ashamed, when you are heartbroken, when you are humiliated. Come on, same life. As the thrill of victories, you have times when you say, oh God, if I could take that back, oh, I don't believe, I don't believe what I did, what I said, where I went, what happened, who I hurt. I don't believe it. If you live life, you think back on some things and you just about have to pray yourself out of that mindset because it will take you to a place that is not productive if you stay there.

There are some, I call them vain regrets, vain regrets because there's nothing you can do to change it. You've heard me say it before, you can't unscramble an egg. Once it's scrambled, you say, I want that egg back in the shell.

You can't. Shells broken, eggs scrambled. Humpty Dumpty was a fairy tale. Don't even bother trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. You just say, there go, there go hump. He's done. Bam.

That's it. Clean him up. That's the way it is in life. You can't undo your past.

So instead of proud moments, you have some times of being ashamed, humiliated, heartbroken instead of significant accomplishments, you have terrible setbacks. Listen, just read your Bible. You're not by yourself. That's why, that's why the Bible is there. I'm so glad the word of God is inspired because it is not a book of wonderful people.

If the Bible was a book of wonderful people, I wouldn't read it because I wouldn't have anything to relate to, but the Bible got jacked up folk from cover to cover. Why are they all in there? So you and I have something to read. We see. Yep, I did that.

Yep. I know what that's like. If you read your Bible and you shaking your head at everybody. Ought to be shame.

I didn't sell. You don't have any self awareness. When you read those people in the Bible, you ought to see traits of yourself. Maybe not the exact manifestations, but you ought to see similarities.

Parallels at least something that reminds me of something about myself. Here's Abraham with a word from God. God says, I'm going to make you the father of nations. You're going to have so many descendants that they can't be counted. Clear word from almighty God and this man says, all right, well, since I'm going to be the father of many nations and my wife and I getting on up there and in years and we haven't had any children all these years.

And Sarah said, well, you know, need looking at me, you know, I'm way past all that. And she said, tell you what, I'm going to give you my servant and I'll let her be a wife in those days that was acceptable in culture, even for people who are God fearing brothers that is no longer acceptable. Don't you be trying to see, even in the Bible, they had three, four, no, that was then this is now that was never God's expressed will. He tolerated it. It was never his will.

And now it is flat out clear. You are to be the husband of one wife, one of them. Pick good because that's it. That's God's will.

Come on somebody. I know there are times when there's a grounds for divorce and all that, and even then you correctly put away the one and then you have the next one, but that is your one wife. You get one.

That's it. And look, don't let your ego write you a check that you can't cash. You think you such a man, you got to have my one is not enough. Quit.

Just stop it. You are not so much man that no one woman can deal with you. The truth. If you get into self awareness, the truth is you are so much that is going to take God to give one woman enough love and patience to deal with you. Now that's the truth. If you ever mess around, find out the truth about yourself. And you thinking you so wonderful. So I'm just that's what can I say?

Your wife be like, go head on. Go ahead. See if somebody else will put up with the mess I put up with dealing with you. Where am I in this message? Oh yeah, I'm on the other side of the ledger. So on that side of the ledger, we have things we're not proud of, things we're ashamed of, things that are messed up, vain regrets we can't do anything about.

And that's your reality. So about your past, you have wonderful things, you have horrible things. And you need to have the right attitude.

What's the right attitude? Paul said the attitude is that of forgetting. He doesn't mean amnesia. He doesn't mean you try to make yourself literally forget. That's impossible.

We can't do it anyway. When he says forgetting, he is saying I want you to not live with an active, open, constantly referred to awareness of the past. And when he says that, the implication is the past including one side of the ledger with all of your strengths and accomplishments and the other side with all of your failures and mess ups. Neither one of them will serve you well if you stay actively focused on them as you move in through your present towards your future. Do not spend your time presently looking back either on good things or bad things. Why? Because I'm moving forward.

If I'm moving forward, what do I have any business doing looking back? You can't do it. It's like I've illustrated it this way before. It's like driving your car in drive, moving forward, foot on the accelerator, but your gaze is in the rearview mirror. There's a problem.

Your focus is wrong. You're going to crash because you're not looking at the right things. Don't spend your time looking backwards either at great things or lousy things. Don't spend your time looking back. Oh, man, if I could just. No, you can't just.

So all you can do is fix your gaze ahead. Say, God, you are the God of Romans 8 28. You are the God who was able to take all things and work them together for good as I move forward in you.

See, God can bring good out of stuff that was not good. That's what he did with Abraham. He and Sarah got together and Sarah said, well, I'm going to give you Hagar, my hand maiden, and she'll be the one who gets you children because I'm the head of the house in terms of the women. So she will actually have children that will be credited to me in their cultural understanding. Even her hand maiden's child would be credited to Sarah, and Sarah actually thought that was a good idea to try to help God bring about this son he promised.

Now that's a problem. It's a well-intended problem, but the issue is God never said anything about Hagar when he was talking to Abram. He didn't say, see that girl right there, I'm going to hook you all up.

No. So if the Lord didn't bring her into it, why are you all bringing her into it? That's putting your brains in God's business.

Brothers and sisters, you'll always mess up your life when you put your brains in God's business. You're listening to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, who is Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. And he'll be right back with a second half of today's message. Remember, you can always listen to Destined for Victory right in the palm of your hand by downloading our free mobile app. The app allows you to select from any of Pastor Paul's recent messages, to contact us for prayer, order resources from our online store. You can even take notes on the daily messages right on your mobile device, and they'll be waiting for you the next time you stop by.

Search Destined for Victory at the app store and download our free mobile app today. Are you living your life through the windshield or the rearview mirror? Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message. Three keys to reaching your God-given goals. Your brains have no business in God's business.

No, no, they shouldn't be there. That's a God thing. What Sarah should have done the first time is what she ended up doing the second time. You do know that the first time she gave Hagar to Abram, and Hagar and Abram got together, and sure enough, that old man produced a child through Hagar. But that child that named Ishmael was a child of the flesh that was not the child of the promise. You want to walk closely with God so that you don't create a bunch of Ishmaels in your life. Things that you may have been well-intended, but it wasn't what God wanted. You know the problem with having Ishmaels? It's not that God won't forgive you.

Of course He will. It's that you've got to raise them. You've got to raise them.

Ishmaels cost time, cost money, cost aggravation. Don't believe it was aggravation. Just keep on reading. And you find a time when even when Hagar was pregnant, he hadn't even come yet. Hagar was pregnant, and she finally had one up on Sarah. And she walking around, ooh, this baby just kicking. You know how ladies can do if you want to get under another lady's skin. Now, see, this is from your past.

You don't do that now. But y'all remember back when you used to throw all kinds of shade, all kinds of one-upmanship. And, ooh, this baby just kicking. You ever seen women have those little subtle fights? You can be grinning and cutting somebody up. Come on, I need some honest sisters. I need the honest sisters in here. Thank you, thank you.

You can just smiling and cutting. And finally, what she didn't realize is I might have his baby, but I live in this woman's house. And so Sarah got enough of it. And she started mistreating her, so much so that that child ran away. And God said, where are you going?

She said, well, I'm being mistreated. And he said, go home. Go home and act right. Get yourself together.

Stop tripping. Write in your Bible. Just different words, but write in your Bible. And God made her promise, said, I'm going to bless the child that's in your womb.

But you're not going to act like this. And so she had to get that through. That was one of the things on her side of the ledger that shouldn't have happened.

One of those shameful moments. Then years later, the boy grows up, becomes a teenager when the child of promise, Isaac, has been born. And on the day that Isaac's being weaned, somewhere around two years old or so would have been typically when that would have happened. By then, Ishmael is a teenager. And Ishmael's mocking the little baby. Ishmael is the child of Hagar. Isaac is the child of the real woman of the house, Sarah.

And Sarah sees that woman's child mocking her two year old or so baby. You know that's a problem. All of y'all holy women know that's a problem.

All of y'all who have never shaded a woman in your life know that that's a problem. You know that's a problem. And Sarah said to Abraham, you want to come over here for a minute? And he said, what's up baby? And she said, that boy has got to go. He will not live another day in this house. But baby, that's my son.

I understand that. But you got two sons. That one is acting too ignorant to be in this house. He got to go. But Hagar is the woman you gave me. I'm glad you brought her up. Y'all know how this went.

Speaking of Hagar. She got to go with him. Both of them getting up out of this house today. This is it. Pack them some stuff.

Send them wherever you want to send them. This is done. The Bible says, Abraham went to Gaza, Lord, look at this mess. And the Lord said, listen to your wife. That's what God told him, listen to your wife. All the married women in their Bibles, that is highlighted. All the married women in here, that's a highlighted. Open up their Bibles and see where they are.

Listen to your wife. That's the bottom line. The Lord said, no, do what she says. And he knew Abraham was concerned, but that's my child.

That's my flesh and blood. And the Lord made him a promise. I'm going to make a nation out of him. Some things God said, you have to turn it over to me. But God was so wonderful.

He said, now I'm going to make sure you know. I'm not going to let that boy die in the wilderness. Even though he was a mistake. That's the God we serve. I will bless your mess. I will cover your mistake. I will take your mess and turn it into a message of grace. I'll take your test and turn it into a testimony of my power. So he says, give it to me. Came to tell somebody, you need to give it to God. Whatever you're dealing with, give it to God.

And don't allow yourself to be stymied by your past. If you do that, my friend, verse 12 wraps it up where Paul says, but I press on. Verse 13 and 14, he says, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal.

If you will have the right assessment of your present and the right attitude about your past, you, my friend, will qualify to have the right approach to your future. There is an approach of pressing. There is a blessing in the pressing. I came to tell somebody, if you get your attitude about the past right, if you get your assessment about the present right, then you will have the right approach to your future.

And that is to press. I can't change anything back there, but I'm going to press into the promises God has for me. There are promises for every one of your lives that if you will press toward them, God will bring them to pass. Yeah, there are mistakes and victories in your past.

Yeah, there are great moments and bad moments in your past. But in God, you are never looking backwards to find joy. If you press forward, he'll give you new joy, new peace, new provision, new grace. God has things ahead of you that are great, and you need to press into them. You got promises you haven't seen come to pass yet. So why look back? Why have a wrong self-assessment when you can experience something ahead of you that's going to be wonderful? I know the devil's telling you your best days are behind you, but tell him you're not my God.

You're not my God. My best days aren't behind me. My best days are ahead of me.

I declare that in Jesus' name. My best days are ahead of me. Yeah, thank God for the good things behind me, but look ahead and see what God will do. You just declare the rest of my days are going to be the best of my days.

Just tell yourself that that is the truth. The rest of my days are going to be the best of my days. Thank God for the good things in the past, but I'm not going to be one of these people living in my past glory. I'm not going to be one of these people sitting around, oh, man, you should have seen me. Boy, 1987. Thank God for 87, but you're in the 21st century now. Believe God for something now, because our God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or even imagine.

But how does that happen? It's according to the power that works in you. Thanks so much for joining us for this Monday edition of Destined for Victory and Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Three Keys to Reaching Your God Given Goals. You know, the only way your past can damage your future is if you choose to live in it. Be encouraged today. There's nothing in your past that can keep you from the love of God or the joy of his salvation. He has forgiven you.

Maybe it's time to forgive yourself before we leave you today. I want to thank you for all you're doing to help Pastor Paul share the love of Jesus through the Destined for Victory broadcast. Your prayers and gifts have helped us grow into worldwide ministry, one that can be heard on more than 400 radio stations and all over the world at PastorPaul.net.

But we don't want to live in what lies behind. Taking our cue from the Apostle Paul, we want to press on towards our high calling in Christ. And we'd love to have you join us by keeping us in your prayers and giving as the Lord directs. In appreciation of your generous gift today, Pastor Paul will send you his booklet, Turning Your Test Into a Testimony. You know, the trials and challenges we go through are the very things that help us grow.

Our mistakes, our past pain are uniquely designed to bring us closer to Jesus and make us be better able to minister to those who may be going through the same things. In this booklet from Pastor Paul, he shows you how your mess can become a message and how your test can become a testimony. That's Turning Your Test Into a Testimony, our gift to you this month by request for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit PastorPaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. Again, our address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. And I want to let you know that we have an awesome calling on our lives. You and I have the responsibility of sharing life with a dying world. We've got to let people know that Jesus is alive and well because they are leaving here and we can't afford to let them leave here without Christ. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, the God of the comma. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ you are Destined for Victory.