Letting The Past Be The Past
Letting Go Of Failures & Regrets
Sunday, May 7, 2017 – Pastor George M. Dupree

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill –

We all have to deal with failures & regrets. Anyone who says you can live a life of no failures and regrets isn’t telling you the truth.

Failures and even Regrets can be our FRIEND!

God causes all things, even our failures and regrets, to work together for good
Romans 8:28 we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

This doesn’t mean we should choose to sin, but it means that even when we do sin God will forgive us if we ask, and He will use even our sins, failures and the things we regret for our good.

What Does The Word Say About It?

God Doesn’t Want Us To Be Condemned
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

The key to not being condemned is being born again and then casting your cares on the Lord
1Peter 1:2 God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed Jesus Christ and are cleansed by his blood. 3 All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again.
1Peter 5:6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. 7 Cast all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.

Forget what lies behind and keep pressing toward the prize
Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul had regrets. He persecuted Christians, he put people in prison, he consented to the stoning to death of the young man Stephen. But he said he forgot what was behind. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t remember his sins, it means he wouldn’t focus on them and therefore be paralyzed by them, instead he focused on the prize before him, knowing Christ.

Even though it's unpleasant we can learn from failures and regrets.

There is no such thing as a life without failures or any regrets

Paul let go of his past so he could press ahead for his purpose!

If you try to hold on to the past and get ahold of the future you’ll get stuck in the past or in the moment you’re in right now.

Don’t Get Stuck In A Moment – Turn from sin and the past mistakes
1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.


2 Corinthians 7:10 – For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.