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  LOOK TO JESUS AND RUN WITHOUT REGRET
  by Annie Poonen
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Summary: This sermon addresses the topic of dealing with regrets in
life, emphasizing the importance of letting go of past mistakes and
finding comfort in God's love and forgiveness. It explores various
scenarios of regret, from personal choices to relationships, and
highlights the need to seek God's help in overcoming regrets. The
speaker encourages a focus on the present moment, learning from past
mistakes, and running the race of life with endurance while looking to
Jesus as the ultimate example and source of strength.

Topics: "Overcoming Regret", "Embracing God's Forgiveness"
Scripture References: Isaiah 49:15, Hebrews 10:17, Philippians 3:13, John 14:16, Hebrews 12:1, Psalm 103:2, Deuteronomy 6:12, Acts 9:1, Exodus 3:1, Mark 9:24

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon addresses the topic of dealing with regrets in life,
emphasizing the importance of letting go of past mistakes and finding
comfort in God's love and forgiveness. It explores various scenarios of
regret, from personal choices to relationships, and highlights the need
to seek God's help in overcoming regrets. The speaker encourages a focus
on the present moment, learning from past mistakes, and running the race
of life with endurance while looking to Jesus as the ultimate example
and source of strength.

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CONTENT
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Dear sisters, it's such a joy to see you all again. Recently somebody
asked me this question, looking back in your life are there any regrets
that you have? So that was a personal question, I didn't know how to
answer it, I couldn't say there were no regrets, neither could I say yes
there are regrets, but when I thought about it, I thought, looking back
in my life, I can only say God's love and mercy and forgiveness and
comfort is like a vast ocean, and the regrets I had or have, when I
think of anything as regret is just like mist, which God just blows
away. So thank God that we don't have to live regretting and regretting
about our past, because God's love is so great, but I know that many
people who have written to me have written about regrets that they had
in their life, like some people made a mess of their college days and
then they're married to someone and they just couldn't make their
marriage life happy because their past life was so miserable.

Another person who I met, she said that she had two children, both of
them had a tragic death, both of them died and she was too old to have
any more children. She wished she had some more children and she had a
lot of regret. Lot of people have had regret about parents and children,
distance between parents and children and they couldn't make it up and
one of them died and they regret that it was too late.

So lot of people have had to deal with regret, especially death of a
loved one, when suddenly someone very close to you has passed away and
gone to be with the Lord, there could be a lot of regret, you could have
been a better person, loved that person a little more or expressed love,
so many things can haunt us, haunt such a person, but how do we deal
with regret? Thank God, God has given us a way out of it, we don't have
to keep dwelling on feelings of regret. I thought of people in the Bible
who had regret in their lives, I thought of the Apostle Paul, he was
sore and he was persecuting the church and his only ambition was to
haunt Christians and kill them and Jesus met with him and made him an
apostle and a witness to Jews and Gentiles and lot of Christians, people
became Christians through his word and even now his writings have been a
blessing to all of us. Peter who denied the Lord, how much of regret he
must have had, but we know that he got over it.

But I was thinking also of Moses, I think a lot about Moses these days,
Moses was, he was so fortunate to have a godly mother and father to take
care of him when he was small, he was miraculously delivered from death
and he was brought up in the Pharaoh's palace like a prince, but thank
God for his childhood, his mother and father could tell him godly values
and tell him that you don't belong to the, you're not really a prince,
you're not really Pharaoh's daughter's son, you belong to God's people,
don't forget that. But they had to teach him wisdom, how to deal and how
to behave in the king's palace and he went and he lived there and his
youth, all the education he got, all the skill he got and then when he
went out, we all know what happened, he went and he saw some of his
fellow, maybe his loved ones, somebody was ill-treated by an Egyptian
taskmaster and he struck that Egyptian man down and he killed him and
after that, out of fear, he had to leave and he was in the wilderness.
That human zeal of youth and that impulsive nature was there, which made
him do that and out there in the wilderness, I wonder what must have
been going on in his mind, he would have lived 40 years like that,
taking care of his father-in-law's sheep and he must have thought, why
did I kill that Egyptian and the thoughts of regret, maybe he must have
been thinking of his loved ones, his people in Egypt and fearful
thoughts about Pharaoh, whether Pharaoh would still hunt him down, he'd
send people and find him in the wilderness, all kind of thoughts must
have been going on in his mind and sometimes that can happen to us also
or our children, even if we are living at home, our children are living
at home, they can be in the wilderness in their spiritual life, far away
from God, forgetting about God, having done some stupid thing, some
disobedient thing and they're regretting about it and years and months
go by, but thank God, God didn't leave Moses like that, God has a
wonderful way of reaching out to us, like he reached out to Moses, maybe
through a letter a loved one writes or through some news that we get or
some verse that we read or a message, even an ordinary thing that can
happen in life can make us or that person think back and reach out to
God, God reached out to Moses in a miraculous way, just like the
prodigal son, he was sitting, he was so hungry and he was sitting and
eating the food that was thrown to the pigs and there he thought of his
father's house and he thought what even the poor people who come begging
at my father's gate, the servants of my father have better food than
this, why am I sitting here eating this rubbish, let me go back to my
father and I say I'm sorry dad, so something like that God can do to
make his children turn back to him, in Moses case, we know what
happened, he was tending his sheep and he saw a bush on fire and the
bush wasn't getting burnt up but the flames coming out of it and he
thought this is something unusual, it's remarkable, let me go near it
and as he went near, he heard God calling him by his name, he had
forgot, he thought who would remember my name, God calling him by name
and saying Moses, Moses and then God spoke to him and said Moses, I've
got a job for you, you're going to deliver my people from Egypt and then
Moses had a lot of excuses, he said Lord you know what all I've done,
I'm a weak person, I can't speak but in we read in Hebrews and in
Stephen said about Moses in Acts that he was an eloquent speaker and he
had all the wisdom but when he stood before God, he said Lord, I can't
speak and how will the people believe me if I go back and say that I've
come to deliver you, they might think you, you killed an Egyptian, how
can you deliver us and you ran away, what were you doing these 40 years,
you forgot all about us and he had all these things going on in his mind
but God had a plan for him and he said you know what God said, Moses
forget about the past, people ask you who sent you, say I am sent you,
think of the present, don't think of the past, yes in the past you did a
lot of wrong things, maybe you were proud about your education, maybe
you didn't care for your family and your loved ones, yes some children
are like that, they grew up in poverty and then suddenly they get rich
and they forget their roots, they forget their parents and the struggles
that their parents went through to make them what they are, they may
have excuses like that but God told Moses don't look back, don't look
back at all the failures in your life, all the ways in which you regret,
all the ways in which you forgot about me, I am, I am the same God your
mom and dad taught you about, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the
same Jacob who came to Egypt, I am the same God, I tell them I am and
the present, I'm not living in the past, we can put whatever words we
like after the I am, I am your helper, I am your keeper, I am the one
who will take care of you, I am your strength, I am the one who will
solve all your problems, I am the one who will take away the regrets in
your life, we can put all the things there and say Lord yes you're more
than enough for me and we can go on from there, so God has had a plan
for Moses and he has a plan for us also, he doesn't want us to live
lives of regret, sometimes when we think of the regrets in our life they
can pull us down and it's only God who is able to lift us up and so
being able to forget is a divine thing, humanly it's not possible for us
to get over some regrets but God can help us, so there are two things
like an anchor, we sang about we have an anchor, thank you Rosanne for
choosing that song, the anchor there are two parts like this, like that
goes down and I thought of the two parts, one that is the anchor which
we should never let go of in our deepest times of regret or fear or
pain, these two things we should never let go of, one is God never
forgets us, in Isaiah 49 verse 15 we know that verse, if you can turn to
that verse Isaiah 49 verse 15, can a woman forget her nursing child that
she should have no compassion on the son of her womb, even these may
forget yet I will not forget you, behold I have engraved you on the
palms of my hands, your walls are continually before me, that's one
truth, unshakeable truth, that part of the anchor which God wants us to
hold on to, that he will never never forget us, even our mom and dad may
forget, yes they won't forget us but even if that happens and or they
cast us off, I know many children who've been cast off by parents
because of broken homes or some unhappy childhood but God never never
forget us and the second part of that anchor is he will not remember our
past sins if we come to him in repentance, we read that in Jeremiah and
in Hebrews 10 it says in the new covenant especially we read that your
sins that's in Hebrews 10 17 your sins and iniquities I will remember no
more, those are the two things we can hold on to if ever we get tempted
to regret about anything that he the Lord never forgets us and he will
not remember our past sins, if the Lord doesn't remember then why should
we remember and keep on thinking and regretting, we should when those
thoughts of regret come we should say yes the Lord has forgiven and
chooses to forget it, why should I keep bringing that in my mind, I want
to choose to forget it and say Lord that divine nature which you have
that ability to forget a person's past give me that divine nature that I
can forget my past and not live in condemnation of my past and I can
forget and other people's past also, so those two things are the anchor
we can hold on to and there are some things which we should never
forget, we should never forget God's goodness to us when looking back we
are tempted to look back at a lot of sad things unhappy things but we
should never forget God's goodness to us, Psalm 103 verse 2 says bless
the Lord oh my soul forget not all his benefits, if we choose to
remember when we are tempted to think of some regretting thing we say
Lord I want to remember your goodness to me, your kindness to me, take
me to think of that and be grateful to you, I want to bless you, I want
to be thankful to you for your past goodness to me, in Deuteronomy
chapter 6 there's another verse which the Lord told Deuteronomy 6 verse
12 it says when you take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you
out of the land of Egypt in our case brought us out of our past sinful
condition forgiven our sins take care not to forget our life of slavery
to sin don't forget that so don't forget those things we should never
forget we should never forget God's promises and commands all the
promises that he has given us don't forget those at times when we are
tempted Satan brings those thoughts into our mind then you say Lord help
me to remember your promises I want to stand on your promises we should
never forget the good things others have done for us when we sometimes
we think of bad things that people did those are things we should forget
we should remove from our mind but the good things that people have done
even the smallest thing Jesus said even a cup of cold water which you
have given to my least of my brothers you will get a reward so how much
more people have done our brothers and sisters our family members have
done good to us we must bring that to our mind and say Lord I thank you
for all these things then we should never forget the mistakes that we
have had and learn from those mistakes we should not be discouraged and
condemn ourselves from for the mistakes we have made but we should say
Lord I want to learn from that mistake and I want to go on from them
from those mistakes and there are some things which we should forget we
should forget the evil and the bad things that others have done to us no
that's the thing which we are tempted to do we keep on thinking I can't
believe she did this to me I can't believe she spoke like this about me
she spoke like this to me those are the things we should forget and I as
I said it's a divine thing to be able to forget only God can say can do
that your sins and iniquities I will remember no more say we should ask
the Lord Lord give me that divine nature to be able to forget the harm
and the bad things that others have done so many girls have problems
about their forgiving their parents or their moms who had some way
lacked something didn't show enough love to them or speak some kind word
to them or some trivial thing and they keep on thinking about that and
they are not able to get rid of that so we should ask the Lord Lord help
me to forget it's like somebody said you know you add good things on top
of these files these bad things are the files files that are in the but
you keep on adding good things think of good things think of God's word
God's promises and the good blessings that God has given us you keep on
piling up piling up piling up then these bad things will go right down
and they in our mind will be taken away and sometimes Satan is so smart
he brings these things to our mind remember that time when this person
did this or you did this and we feel so ashamed and those thoughts come
those thoughts are from the devil we say Lord I want to reject these
thoughts I don't want to dwell on these thoughts of my past or my
failure the wrong decisions I did anything let me to forget it so we
should forget the evil that others have done and the good that we do to
others sometimes we keep on thinking you know I did so much good to this
person and she doesn't remember anything I sent her meals I did this I
looked after her when she was sick and I did this and and we keep on
piling the good things that we did and then we become proud and boastful
and God doesn't want us to be like that so we should forget those good
things that we did for others and say Lord I've not done it that person
I've done it for you but so it's you who should thank me and I don't
want to receive any thanks from you and I just offer that to you that
service which I did I offer it to you and we should forget as I said
earlier we should forget the failures which haunt us and discourage us
and condemn us as we heard some time back from our dear brothers in
discouragement and condemnation self-condemnation are no entry roads so
we should say Lord I don't want to enter those two roads my failures yes
there are failures I'm not perfect there are a lot of failures in my
life but Jesus is there he's not remembering my failures he has forgiven
my past who am I to keep on remembering it's like me telling the Lord
Lord do you remember I failed you this at this time on this particular
day I failed you and the Lord says what are you talking about I choose
to forget about it why do you want to remind me about that so we should
say Lord that's what I want to do but I want to learn a lesson Lord from
my failures I don't want to repeat them I don't want to condemn myself
but I want to learn from that so those failures will be my stepping
stones from that failure it's like a ladder each failure is like a
ladder for me to climb higher and higher and closer to God so about our
past there are some things which we can do and we should do when the
feelings of regret come if there are things we need to set right like
when feelings of past regret comes and we feel that we have hurt
somebody we can write a note of apology or an email or call them up on
the phone and say I'm really sorry that day I did like this or I said
like that please forgive me or to our mom and dad mom I don't want to
wait for your birthday to thank you but the Lord reminded me that you've
been such a good mommy to me and you took care of me and you forgave me
even though I was so stubborn many times and I hurt you I want to thank
you and I'm sending you this bouquet or at least this card for you don't
wait till they become sick and unconscious and we wish oh I wish I had
spoken to my mom right now we can do something and we can call them up
or send a letter to them if we don't have the chance to talk the courage
to talk straight to them we can send them a card and write in the best
way we can and say thank you mom or our sibling or someone whom we have
lost contact with you know I had some regrets in my life about my loved
ones things happened which brought a distance between my loved ones and
me and I wanted to show my love to them but circumstances were such that
I just couldn't meet and I prayed I said Lord this thing is there I
don't want my parents to die without me ever getting a chance to talk to
them or tell them exactly how much I love them and praise God he gave me
a chance he gave me many chances supernaturally he gave me chances so
that after they died in my heart there was just such a comfort and such
joy as I said before looking back they were like mists which the Lord
just blew away if I hadn't done that my life would have been full of
regret my parents have died and I didn't do what I could do so don't
condemn yourself for things which you couldn't do but if there are the
chances which you can do be let's take that opportunity if to write to
them apologize to thank them if we have taken something wrongfully and
we feel that that's sitting in my house and I haven't yet returned it
it's a small thing but they may not miss it maybe it's a book or maybe
it's something else oh yes I haven't returned it let me be quick to
return it thank you and add something to it maybe it's some container
you can fill it up with some chocolate or something and return it so
loving and forgiving and sometimes the people whom we should have shown
our love they may not be there but maybe their children are there you
know when David after Saul's death he said are there anybody in Saul's
family whom I can show love to and he found one of his lame children
called Mephibosheth and he brought him into the palace and he took care
of him so maybe some children who somebody whom we should have loved we
can show we can show love to them so God if we are really sincere God
will show us many many opportunities give us many opportunities to show
that love then but there are some regrets which are good looking back in
our life there are some regrets which may be good and we can do
something about definitely looking back in our life we can have regret
about our spiritual condition not I'm not the person not the person I
should be my prayer life and I need to pray more I'm so self-centered in
my prayer I need to pray for others I need to intercede maybe somebody
sitting here may not yet have the assurance it's being born again before
it's too late make that decision to accept Jesus into your heart or
feelings of regret not how unchristlike I am I'm still so selfish I talk
about myself I think of myself my lack of prayer my lack of desire to
read God's word the besetting sins which I have my anger things which I
don't want they keep coming up in my life and Satan keeps reminding me
of those things Lord help me help me to get over those things those are
regrets we can do something about but there are a lot of regrets we just
have to let go we just have to say looking back there are so many things
we just have to let go and we can do nothing more some people have
written to me that in their single days they were in their college days
they were fooling around with the wrong person and now they are married
and they have regrets about the past that life that they lived a lot of
young girls have had that tormenting thoughts what's the use of thinking
on that those are things we just have to let go Lord I want to let go of
it take it away from my mind you know one thing what we can do about is
Lord take it we don't talk to others about it I mean maybe we can talk
to our husbands about it if you want to get rid of it but don't talk to
younger people who won't be able to handle it but and get over it and
say Lord don't let me think about it take it away even from my mind and
sometimes some people have a feeling that they are in the wrong place am
I really should I be here if you're married and your husband and you
have made that decision then we don't have to be condemning ourselves
saying why am I here have I done the right thing that decision is
belongs to both a husband and us why did I leave my home and come here
why am I why did I leave my why did my husband leave that job and come
here all those things are beyond us that belong to our family so let
those things be there and say Lord and if we should move out of here
convince my husband and let us both agree on that and sometimes in the
past may have been some wrong friendships we had and that friendship has
influenced us we can't do anything we can't do anything about the wrong
friendship but we can say no more of that kind of friendship no more of
the friendship which encourages me to gossip and talk ill of others I
want to put an end to that I want to have nothing more to do with that
that type of thing sometimes some people are regretting the medical
treatment the doctors gave them and they're permanently um their health
is affected because of the wrong treatment what can we do if the doctor
may not has not done that deliberately but by mistake that doctor has
given you the wrong treatment and we are suffering from it we say lord
help me to forgive that doctor help me not to keep on and maybe all my
life I have to suffer but it's okay lord let me draw closer to you
through this suffering which I have to undergo but I know that my body
belongs to you I offered my body anyway to you it belongs to you and so
you take care of it you can heal me or if you want me to live like with
this thorn in the flesh give me the grace to take care of it so many
people are under condemnation because of some wrong treatment or
sometimes we may have done the wrong thing for our children given them
the wrong type of food or done something wrong which has affected them
we we should not condemn ourselves and live in regret to say lord I made
a mistake but maybe my mom made a mistake in letting me have this but I
want to forgive and you forgive me and you can heal my child heal me let
me not to live with that regret making me so those are the things we
have to let go so many children are suffering because they have come
from broken homes because the parents have left them mom and dad they
think that the moms and dads have forsaken them but we do not know what
circumstances led to that maybe there was a lot of suffering maybe the
fear of some greater sin being committed that's why they had to separate
so don't live in condemnation or regret about those things and say lord
all those things of my past I want to leave in your hands I am your
child you help me to deal with the past help me to forget about it and
help me to live my life free from all the regrets of the past sometimes
we are victims of some injustice something some racial injustice because
of our color or in our job situation somebody else got the job which we
should have got our husband should have got or we lost a job because of
some partiality or a husband has lost a job because of partiality those
are things we cannot do anything about we can look for another job or
change but there's no use of living in regret about it we have to let go
of those things and say lord I hand it over to you and I want to think
about it I want to put these things in the bottom file I want to add
good things on top of these things you know there was a there's a
beautiful song which I was thinking about there are some some things
which we cannot tell others but we can tell it to Jesus I think Rosanne
you might know that song but I'll just read the words of that song are
you weary are you heavy-hearted tell it to Jesus tell it to Jesus are
you grieving over joys departed tell it to Jesus alone tell it the
chorus is tell it to Jesus tell it to Jesus he is a friend that's well
known you've no other such a friend or brother tell it to Jesus alone
second verse is do the tears fall down your cheeks unbidden tell it to
Jesus tell it to Jesus have you since that to men's eyes are hidden tell
it to Jesus alone do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow tell it to
Jesus are you anxious what shall be tomorrow tell it to Jesus alone are
you troubled at the thought of dying tell it to Jesus for Christ's
kingdom I'll sign tell it to Jesus alone you know so many girls have
come to me with feelings of hurt that they were molested in their
childhood and that scar it remains in their mind for years and years and
they're afraid afraid to get married afraid to trust a man those are
deep sorrows which we we cannot share with anyone but we can say tell it
to Jesus he can heal every scar he can take it out of your mind he can
teach us to forgive that person maybe you'll meet that person in heaven
that person who molested you God forgave his sin and he's in heaven how
will you be able to meet that person if you haven't forgiven him on
earth so those are things which we have to let go and not hold on to
because that will if we keep on holding on to that then we make our
lives miserable we make our family miserable our children miserable
because deep down this hurt is there and every now and then those things
keep coming up so we that's the secret tell it to Jesus we can't tell a
lot of things to other people but we can tell it to Jesus there's a
beautiful verse philippians 3 13 it says paul says forgetting the things
behind let me read that verse philippians 3 13 one thing i do forgetting
what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead i press on
toward the goal or the price of the upward call of god in christ jesus
paul was a man who persecuted christians who's forgetting that paul was
a man who suffered a lot for christ's sake that also he wants to forget
he won he wrote scripture he doesn't want to think of that and get proud
about it forgetting that's why it's such a divine thing to be able to
forget the past and reach out to god and how as i said it's a divine
quality and only the lord can give us through the power of the holy
spirit jesus said in john 14 in the holy june john 14 verses 15 and to
17 jesus said i'm going away but i'll send the holy spirit another
helper a comforter who live in you he'll abide in you he'll live within
you right now i'm with you but after i leave the holy spirit will live
in you and he'll help you he'll help you to get over all these regretful
things he lives and he'll help you to deal with everything he's a
comforter things which you cannot share with others he'll comfort you
he'll be with you he'll walk alongside with you and most of all he'll
tell you about me he'll make my things living to you how much i went
through so that you could have this abundant life praise god and in
hebrews 12 it says let me think that was such a ebook 12 therefore since
we are surrounded by so great weaknesses let us lay aside every weight
lay aside every regret every weight and sin which cling so closely and
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to
jesus we can't run any other way we can only run looking at jesus the
founder and perfecter of our faith he's the one who began the race who
started this race for us and he's going ahead gone ahead of us we look
at him and we run we don't look at all these weight the weight of regret
the weight of sin we don't look at those things we look ahead at our
forerunner who ran the race and opened the way for us so we can run free
all these regrets are like weight pulling us down just lay those aside
and run with patience because of the power that the lord has given us so
the power of the holy spirit it's only the lord who can help us to run
this race and be a blessing to others we'll meet a lot of people with
regrets people will come to us and say i regret this i'm sorry about
this and we'll be able to help them and say yes this is the thing we
have to let go it's a weight don't let that weight drag you you know
when people want to drown they tie a weight on them and they jump into
that's what the weight can do slow us down and even destroy us but cast
out that weight that weight of regret and run with patience looking at
our forerunner and he'll help us so i'll just summarize a few things
that i i was just wondering if the the electronic situation will be okay
but thankfully everything is okay but i'll just go through some of the
things where uh which i was talking about there are some things in our
past which are beyond our control we have to just let go and there are
some things which we need to do something about like forgive ask
forgiveness restitution repair debt those things we can do and don't
talk about our grievances to anybody tell it to jesus don't forget that
song i read somewhere that in our mind we should have many burial
services you know funeral services anytime these kind of regretful
thoughts come dig a grave and put that thought and bury it and say i am
done with it i don't want to think about it so do a burial service of
these kind of past things which come up don't look back except to thank
god and learn some lessons from the things that mistakes that we have
done live in the present god is the god of i am and of course the future
but the present is ours what we have what we are today and what we have
today is what we have now live in that don't live in the past regret for
life that's all shadows that's all cloudy it's all mist but the present
is clear god's word shines into our heart so live in the present and say
lord you are the god who said you i am i want to be in that present and
experience you you are my helper you're my the supplier of every need
you're my comforter i want to claim you as you are then we should
prevent situations which we might regret later on you know like if
you're having an argument with somebody or we're having a trying to
convince our children especially when they're in the teenage and we want
to convince them and we keep on talking we might do as say some things
that we'll regret about so try avoiding try to avoid such situations
especially if they are adults i remember many times when i used to talk
to my mom i would say something to her which i really didn't mean and
afterwards i regretted and i thought i should not have said that but one
time i got a chance to tell a few things to her and say mom i really
didn't mean it you know i'm your daughter my tongue says things like
that i really didn't mean it i'm really sorry well sometimes it's good
for us to take heed and avoid things that can lead to situations like
that then as i said we should run the race looking unto jesus and hold
on to the promises and don't forget the anchor the two sides of the
anchor the two ends of the anchor that god never forgets us and he
doesn't remember our past and past sins and inequities and then
philippians 3 13 one thing i do forgetting what is behind i run i run
the race looking unto jesus and with the power of the holy spirit
because only the lord can give us that strength and ability it's a
divine virtue to be able to get rid of our past and look forward to the
future may god bless us

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/wa0AgL0k1iE.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/annie-poonen/look-to-jesus-and-run-without-regret/
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