Yesterday was good, it was bad, and it was ugly, and you can't change none of it. Dr. Tony Evans says our past can be a trap. But you can press on, for your tomorrow is greater than your yesterday. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Looking back can help us remember where we came from. But if we don't turn our eyes forward, we'll never be able to move ahead with the purpose and direction God desires for us. Today's message comes from the timeless archives of Dr. Evans as he took an important look at moving into our future with confidence.
Let's listen. You can only discover that God is God when you're going through wilderness situations. Those are the trials, the testings, and the temptations in which you have to depend on God because your own resources are not enough.
You can't make it on your own. The wilderness is dry. The wilderness is barren.
The wilderness has no life. So if you're going to eat and drink in the wilderness, God has got to rain down manna from on high and bring water out of rocks. Because that's what he did in the wilderness.
The purpose of the wilderness is for God to show you he's God. So there is deliverance in order to reach destiny through a process of development. They are on the verge of entering the promised land in Numbers chapter 14.
They are right there. They hear that there are going to be problems moving forward. There's blessing, but you got to overcome some problems moving forward to the destiny God has for you. When they hear this, they grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said, whether we had died in Egypt or we had died in this wilderness, why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?
Our wives and our little ones have become plunder. Would it not have been better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, let us appoint a leader and let us return to Egypt.
They wanted to go back to yesterday. And what does that tell us? That tells us you can be delivered and still be a slave. In other words, you can be set free, but still have yesterday running your mind.
Here's what you need to understand. Deliverance provides you the opportunity for freedom. It is not in itself freedom. Whenever your yesterday looks better than your tomorrow, then that means you still a slave.
See, freedom has to do with a framework not only of where you are, but how you're thinking about where you are. When Israel saw Goliath, it says, they saw how tall he was and they ran. When David saw Goliath, he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine who would dare challenge the armies of the living God? And then he looked at Goliath and said, I come to you in the name of the Lord. He says, this is not my battle. This battle is the Lord's battle. He can move forward because God was part of the equation.
But you see, if you haven't discovered God in the wilderness, if you haven't learned what he can do when you run out of food and he provides it out of nowhere, if you haven't learned what he can do when you didn't know how you were going to pay your bills and he still got you living in that same house, if you've never discovered what God can do when you didn't see any way out of your job situation and he gave you another one, if you've never seen what God can do when your back was against the wall and there was no way out and he made a way out of no way, then when it comes across the promised land, you're not going to be ready to move. You're going to want to go back to Egypt. Don't you let yesterday keep you from tomorrow. I don't care how bad it is.
And I don't care how long you've been there. All that's real. I'm not asking you to deny that.
I'm saying don't let it chain you. They had mentally left Egypt. Look at what God says to them about his complaint, verse 22. Surely all the men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I performed, chapter 14, verse 22, that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet they have put me to the test these 10 times and have not listened to my voice. He says, I showed them what I could do. I let them see.
I let them see me do 10 plagues. They got frogs coming up out of nowhere, covering the land. I turned the water into blood.
You know, all the firstborn of the Egyptians died. They saw me open up the Red Sea. They saw me rain down manna, corn flakes from above. They saw me bring water out the rock.
How come I did all that stuff 10 times? They saw me strut my stuff in Egypt and now they're questioning me. Now they're wondering, did I bring them this far to leave them? And now they want to go back to yesterday, the good old days, just because they had some fish. And they were destroying their future because they were too in love with yesterday. Hebrews 4 says their problem was they failed to mix the word of God with faith. They heard the word. They heard my voice, but they didn't mix it with faith, which means hearing the Bible isn't enough.
Coming to church isn't enough. It's got to get a mixture going with faith. If you want cement to become concrete, you got to mix it with sand and water. See, if you want cement to become concrete, you got to mix it with sand and water. If you don't mix it with sand and water, you won't get anything concrete. You can hear the Bible all you want, but if you don't mix it with faith, it won't become concrete in your experience.
It won't become solid in your experience. And mixing it by faith isn't a feeling. Mixing it by faith is stepping out on it. It is acting on it. That's why it's called walking by faith.
You got to act on the word. Until you act on the word, it'll be spiritual theory. It won't be a concrete experience. It'll never become concrete for you. It'll make you feel good.
It'll give you an emotional high, but it won't last long because it was never concrete. It didn't get mixed with an action called faith. So that's why when you hear the word of God, the question is, what action am I going to take?
See, because without the action, it dies in the wilderness. You can hear about God getting you out of debt all you want to, but if there's not the action of the tithe, if all you do is amen, but there's no action of the tithe, then you can't expect God to do something because there was no action. That was just an amen. That was just a nice sermon.
That's all it was. It was the voice of God unattached to faith. Faith demands an action, not just a thought.
So what happened when they wanted to go back to yesterday? Now, there is something you ought to remember from yesterday, and that is the faithfulness of God. See, that's the one thing you want to remember. In Egypt, ten times, he blew my mind.
In the wilderness, he blew my mind. You want to remember that. But even that, watch this now, you don't want to go back to, because you want to see what new thing God is going to do. See, you don't want your testimonies just to be about what God did in the day. You don't want your testimony, but when I was ten, this is what God did for me.
That's good. And I'm glad he did something for you when you were ten, but now you're fifty. What is God doing for the fifty-year-old or the fifty-one-year-old or the sixty-year-old? Because his mercies are new every day. So don't just tell me what he did for you when you were a teenager.
That was good when you were a teenager, because that was back then. But he's delivering you to another future now. He wants you to cross another Jordan.
He wants you to have a new experience. He wants you to have a fresh testimony. Actually, God answered their prayer, because he says, verse 23 of chapter 14, They shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurn me see it.
You say, well, how's that answering their prayer? Because in verse 2, they said, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or we had died in this wilderness? Would that we had died in this wilderness? God says, okay. You want to limit your life to this wilderness?
I'll give you exactly what you ask for. You're not going to see the promised land. You're going to die here. There are a lot of us... Look, do you know the trip from Egypt to Canaan was a 35-day walk? That's a 35-day walk. It takes 35 days for 2 million people to go from Egypt to Canaan through the wilderness. 35 days. It took them 40 years to make a 35-day trip. And it took them 40 years because they failed to take God seriously and kept looking back. They kept looking back, and because they kept looking back, what should have taken 35 days, and somebody here knows what I'm talking about, because you should have been a lot further by now. By now, you should have been a lot further in your life, a lot further in your family, a lot further in your finances, a lot further in your well-being. You should have been way down the road by now, but you're going in circles.
Around and around. Come on, you old school. I'm talking old school. See, some of us here have died at 30. We're just not going to be buried until 70. We died a long time ago. We're just waiting for the funeral. Because we're living in yesterday.
We're living in yesterday. So they were going to lose out on their future. Moses said, please forgive them, verse 19. God says, I'm going to forgive them, but I ain't going to let them see my land. So then what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is where God no longer requires a debt to be paid. Forgiveness means that God either cancels or limits the judgment. Well, the judgment was, I'm going to kill them right now.
When God forgave them, He didn't kill them right now, but He didn't let them in the land. So He reduced the consequence. He didn't cancel it.
He didn't cancel it, but He did reduce it. He let them live, and He provided for them, but He provided for them in a place they should never have been stuck in a wilderness. So they didn't get it. It affected their kids. Verse 33, your son shall be shepherds for 40 years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until your corpses lie in the wilderness. Your children are going to have to bear the burden of your rejection of me for 40 years. Then I'm going to bring them into the blessing. But you've delayed your children's progress.
And all we've got to do is look in our culture today and see where parents have messed up their kids. But even the consequences of our past shouldn't hold us back from going where God wants us to go. And we'll hear more on that when we continue our lesson in just a moment. First though, today's message comes from Dr. Evans' timeless sermon series, Freedom Through Forgiveness. Through the lessons in this collection, you learn about the pardon you receive from God and how to pass forgiveness on to the people who may have hurt you in the past, and even how to forgive yourself. We'd like to send you a copy of this series as our gift when you make a donation to help support the work of the Urban Alternative here on the air and around the world. And if we hear from you right away, we'll include a special bonus, the companion book for this series, 30 Days to Victory Through Forgiveness. In it, you'll discover that the person who benefits most from your forgiving heart is you. Visit us today at tonyevans.org for details, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222.
That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll have that contact information for you again after the second part of today's lesson. Let's get back to it. So the question is, what do you do about yesterday?
Well, I told you one thing. You use yesterday as a rear-view mirror, you glance at it. You don't live in it. And when you drive and you have a rear-view mirror, you don't live in the rear-view mirror. You're going to hurt somebody. You go driving, talking about, I'm just focusing on the rear-view mirror. You're going to hurt somebody because you can't move forward staring in the rear-view mirror. You need to glance at it, and remember, this is where I was. This is what God did. But you are moving forward utilizing the windshield, because that glass is so much bigger, because where you're going is supposed to be much bigger than where you've been. So you want to live your life moving forward with the windshield, that is, finding out God's perspective on anything, on every subject.
You want to know what God thinks about it, how God feels about it, and what He expects from you regarding it, so that I can see new movement of God. You need to, here it is, here it is, here it is, repent of whining. Okay, let me say it again. Stop whining! It says, all the way through the wilderness, the people of Israel grumbled and whined. Here they are telling them how great the land is. God's going to give it to us, and it says, verse two, all the sons of Israel grumbled, whining.
Oh, I can't, I won't, never could, never would. You know, my people, my daddy, my granddaddy, my great granddaddy, my whining. Oh, all I got is manna, I'm on steak, and there's this whining, and whining, and whining, and whining, and it says the anger of the Lord burns. Stop whining! I don't mean there aren't legitimate things to complain about if something's wrong, is wrong, but that's not whining. Whining is that spirit that constantly rejects negatively what God has said. Well, how are we going to do this? Nobody's ever done that before.
I don't think I can do this. It says they grumbled against God. Now, if something is wrong, you ought to complain about it.
If something needs to correct it, yeah, that's what he's talking about. He's talking about grumbling against what God had told them to do. It says these people grumble always, and I'm tired of it, especially since I showed them what I can do.
It says repent of whining. Okay, here's a big one, leaving yesterday behind. Stop hanging out with the 10.
You didn't miss that, did you? Moses sent 12 spies in. Two came back and said what God said we can do. Ten came back and said we can't do that.
We can't do that. See, the reason why a lot of us will live in the past and not move on to the future is because the folk we hang out with aren't people of faith. They aren't people who trust God. They aren't people who can see beyond yesterday. They want to get together and talk about yesterday. We're hanging out with the wrong people and wondering why we stuck, why we're not making any progress, why things are not better.
Why? Because we're hanging out with yesterday-thinking people. You want to hang out with people who are trusting God for tomorrow because they believe what God has said even though there are Nephilim in the land, even though there's a city called Jericho with a wall around it, even though there's an army called Ai. God said we can take it.
Let's go get it. We're hanging out with the wrong people. We're talking to the wrong folk on the phone. We're talking to yesterday people, and we're talking to them all night long. We're talking to them all night long.
We're talking to guys who as messed up as we are talking about he my homeboy. It was only two that were right, Joshua and Caleb. And only, see, see the problem with the yesterday people is you get to die with them. Because the yesterday people died in the wilderness too. Only two carried over, and that was Caleb and Joshua because it says only those two believe God.
So who you hanging out with? Paul put it this way. In Philippians 3, 13, he says, forgetting those things which are behind, I press on. He says I had to let yesterday go.
And that means the good, the bad, and the ugly. You got to let it go. You got to let it go. Now I know what you're saying.
You're saying that's easier said than done. Well, it's actually easier done than said because the way you let it go is you keep staring at that milk and honey. See, if you don't see the milk and honey, then you're going to hold on to the fish and garlic, okay? See, if you lose sight of the milk and honey, if you lose sight that God has a purpose, God has a destiny, God has a goal, then you're going to live in yesterday because yesterday is the only thing that's real to you.
That's why he sent them in to look at the fruit. He says I want you to see what I'm talking about. Every now and again God will give you a glimpse of tomorrow.
He won't let you handle it all till you go get it, but he'll let you see that tomorrow is out there and he'll let you feel a little something something about tomorrow. You know what Paul had to forget? He had to forget some bad stuff because he was a murderer. He was over there when they stoned Stephen to death. He was standing right there commissioning the execution. He's a killer. He persecuted the Church of the Living God. That man is a murderer. Paul says I had to forget the things that are behind because if every day I thought about the fact that I was a murderer, I could have never become an apostle.
I could have never written 13 books in the New Testament. He not only had to forget the bad stuff, he had to forget the good stuff. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He was of the Pharisees, one of the leaders. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the leading tribes.
He was, according to the law, a perfect man. He had a lot of good stuff in his past. He said I had to forget that too. I couldn't just remember all the good stuff I made. I couldn't just remember I made an A in kindergarten. I couldn't just remember all the good stuff I did. It was good back there. I'm glad I did it, but I'm pressing on.
I got new mountains to conquer and new victories to experience and new enhancements. Some people in the Bible had to forget the ugly. Joseph had to forget the ugly because his brothers were ugly. Sold them into slavery. That's ugly. Accused to rape falsely. That ain't right.
Forgotten in prison. That ain't right. None of that's right. That's ugly. That's just downright ugly. He could have spent the rest of his life saying, you boys did me wrong. You boys shouldn't have sold me into slavery. That was not fair. If y'all hadn't done this, I wouldn't have had to go through all that stuff just because y'all were jealous of me over a coat dream that I had.
That was not fair. And I'm never gonna forgive y'all for the rest of my life. I'm gonna hold this thing, and I'm gonna, you know, and what goes around comes around, and, you know, I ain't gonna ever let this go. I ain't gonna ever let this go. But you know what Joseph said? You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. To bring me to this place, you got to let it go.
If you're gonna be free to move forward, you got to let it go and not be held hostage to yesterday. I love Isaiah 43, verse 18 and 19. It says, forget the form of things because I'm doing a new thing. Isaiah 48, 18, 19, forget the form of things because I'm trying to do something new and you're remembering something old.
Put it on your mantlepiece and look at it while you walk by, but that's enough. I love Hebrews chapter 10 because look at what he says to the New Testament Christian. In Hebrews chapter 10, he says these words in verse 35. Don't throw away your confidence, which has great reward. Don't throw away your confidence, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. Don't go backwards, he says.
Don't shrink back because just like Israel, my soul has no pleasure in him. I love when I see guys in a race and when I see them get to the tape and they lean. They lean. See, they get to the tape and they lean.
You know why? Because they're pressing forward to get to the tape. When's the last time you seen a runner running like this? When's the last time you seen a runner doing this? Going the other way. You know what?
He's going toward a goal. Once you turn and go backwards, you are working against where you're trying to get to. Let it go. Yesterday was good, it was bad, and it was ugly. And you know the first thing about it? You can't change none of it. None of it.
It's permanently good, permanently bad, or permanently ugly. But you can press on and lean toward the high hope and the calling that is in Christ Jesus. Somebody bless the Lord for the future, for your tomorrow is greater than your yesterday. Dr. Tony Evans, sharing the timeless biblical truth of God's blessing and direction for those who will let go of the past and follow His calling.
Now don't forget, you can get the full-length version of all six messages in this sermon series, Freedom Through Forgiveness, bundled along with a copy of Thirty Days to Victory Through Forgiveness. As I mentioned earlier, they're yours with our thanks when you make a donation toward the ministry of the Alternative Broadcast. Visit us today at tonyevans.org to get all the details. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you.
The number again, 1-800-800-3222. People often say you can do anything if you have enough faith. But on Monday, we'll learn that's only true when you have the right kind of faith. I hope you'll join us for that. ? ?
