Forward with gratitude! Isaiah 43:18,19

You cannot depend on past victories to sustain you: Forget the former things

Their Victories Leaving Egypt Conquering the land Fighting off their enemies Settling in as a nation Surviving a split in their country.

You cannot allow your failures to hold you back: Do not dwell on the past

He gave them: Himself They wanted a king Commands They lived like these were suggestions Wealth Abuse of the poor Temple Idol worship Blessing They oppressed the other nations and sought to be like them

Single minded and focused

Nehemiah 6:2,3 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” Philippians 3:13B, 14 But one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press forward toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Sovereignty of God Praise be to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who put it into the king’s heart to bring honor to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem in this way and who has extended his good favor to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Ezra 7:27,28

Risk

Nehemiah 2:2,3 Therefore the king said to me, “ why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of hear.” So I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”  

Faith

Ezra 8 :21-23 Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king saying, “ The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.”

Vision

Vision It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. Is. 49:6

Conclusion